In a heartbreaking replay of systemic failure, a family in Kantabanji was left with no choice but to transport the body of their 12-year-old daughter on a motorcycle after the government hospital could not provide an ambulance or hearse in time.
Suryakanti Chhura, a minor from Khairpada village under Bongomunda block, had been admitted to Kantabanji Government Hospital in critical condition. Doctors later declared her dead while she was under treatment.
What followed exposed the deep cracks in the local health system. The family urgently requested an ambulance or mortuary van to take the body back to their village. According to ambulance driver Karna Rana, he had taken another vehicle to Balangir to fetch an oxygen cylinder. When contacted near Patnagarh, he assured them he would reach Kantabanji within an hour.
The family could wait no longer. Hospital in-charge Rakesh Pandit confirmed that relatives left with the body on their own motorcycle, unwilling to delay the last journey of their child.
This is not an isolated incident. Residents say bodies have previously been carried on shoulders or bikes from the same hospital due to the unavailability of transport.
Ironically, the hospital has two ambulances. One was provided earlier from the MLA fund of former legislator Santosh Singh Saluja. Yet both vehicles share only a single driver, creating a permanent bottleneck. Incumbent MLA Laxman Bag has reportedly written to the CDMO seeking appointment of another driver, but no permanent solution has materialised.
The question now hanging over Kantabanji is simple and painful: When two ambulances exist but a child’s body still travels by motorcycle, who is responsible? And how many more such tragedies will it take before the health department and state government act decisively?
In rural Odisha, where timely medical transport can mean the difference between dignity and despair, this latest episode is more than a logistical failure — it is a public indictment of a system that continues to fail the most vulnerable.
