Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Comment: Some excerpts below, but go read this powerful story in full. - Ro
My Daughter Was Not A Number, Cries A Heartbroken Father In Gorakhpur
One month on, the parents of the dead children have no closure.
12/09/2017 8:21 AM IST | Updated 43 minutes ago
Betwa Sharma Politics Editor, HuffPost India
...
As he goes over the last 12 hours of his daughter's life, Mohammad said he feels angry not just at the government but also at himself for having failed to save her. It was as if he had tried everything but the "system" was designed to fail him.
At the private hospital that Mohammed had first rushed his daughter on the evening of 10 August, he spent almost his entire saving, even though she was admitted for a few hours. It didn't matter. He was ready to sell his bike, his house, his wife's jewellery to pay for her treatment, but it was the private doctor who insisted that going to the BRD Medical College was the only way of saving her.
"I was running out of time. I didn't have the money at the exact time. And you know they make you give every penny at a private hospital before doing anything. At the first private hospital, I was 50 rupees short but they wouldn't let it go. My daughter's condition was getting worse. I told them take my mobile, take my ID," he said.
Mohammad then cycled home to collect the last of his savings to hire an ambulance that would take his daughter to the BRD Medical College, several kilometres away.
As he entered the government hospital, he remembers being overwhelmed by its size and the chaos unfolding inside. There was no one to tell him where to go or what to do. But with his daughter now almost senseless in his arms, he knew he had to act quickly.
Despite his best efforts, it took him nearly three hours to fill in the paperwork, buy her medicines and get her admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ward. "It took me half-an-hour to find the area where they sell medicines. But then the doctor changed the prescription so I had to go back. I didn't have money to buy another set so I begged the shopkeeper to exchange it. But he wasn't agreeing. Somehow I convinced him. I lost another half-an-hour," he said. "What should I say now? It was hell."
...
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/0...a-heartbroken-father-in-gorakhpur_a_23203828/
My Daughter Was Not A Number, Cries A Heartbroken Father In Gorakhpur
One month on, the parents of the dead children have no closure.
12/09/2017 8:21 AM IST | Updated 43 minutes ago
Betwa Sharma Politics Editor, HuffPost India
...
As he goes over the last 12 hours of his daughter's life, Mohammad said he feels angry not just at the government but also at himself for having failed to save her. It was as if he had tried everything but the "system" was designed to fail him.
At the private hospital that Mohammed had first rushed his daughter on the evening of 10 August, he spent almost his entire saving, even though she was admitted for a few hours. It didn't matter. He was ready to sell his bike, his house, his wife's jewellery to pay for her treatment, but it was the private doctor who insisted that going to the BRD Medical College was the only way of saving her.
"I was running out of time. I didn't have the money at the exact time. And you know they make you give every penny at a private hospital before doing anything. At the first private hospital, I was 50 rupees short but they wouldn't let it go. My daughter's condition was getting worse. I told them take my mobile, take my ID," he said.
Mohammad then cycled home to collect the last of his savings to hire an ambulance that would take his daughter to the BRD Medical College, several kilometres away.
As he entered the government hospital, he remembers being overwhelmed by its size and the chaos unfolding inside. There was no one to tell him where to go or what to do. But with his daughter now almost senseless in his arms, he knew he had to act quickly.
Despite his best efforts, it took him nearly three hours to fill in the paperwork, buy her medicines and get her admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ward. "It took me half-an-hour to find the area where they sell medicines. But then the doctor changed the prescription so I had to go back. I didn't have money to buy another set so I begged the shopkeeper to exchange it. But he wasn't agreeing. Somehow I convinced him. I lost another half-an-hour," he said. "What should I say now? It was hell."
...
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/0...a-heartbroken-father-in-gorakhpur_a_23203828/
