Ambulance driver refuses, patient dies after over 2-hr wait | Meerut News

Meerut: A 32-year-old man, suffering from severe stomach pain after undergoing a surgery around six months ago, died after allegedly waiting agonisingly for over two hours for an ambulance at a health centre in UP’s Baghpat early on Saturday.Monty Rathi, a resident of Tikri in Baghpat, was taken to a community health centre by his family. From there, his family was asked to immediately shift him to Meerut’s Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College — around 50km away — for “urgent medical attention”. But, as per the family, when they approached an on-duty govt ambulance driver, “he refused to go”.Monty’s brother, Gaurav Rathi, said on Sunday, “Monty had an infection in his intestines, and had an operation at a private hospital in Meerut six months ago. He was recovering well, when on Friday, the stomach pain re-surfaced and his condition suddenly deteriorated. We rushed him to the CHC. There, the doctor referred him to Meerut.”Gaurav added: “Our family soon dialled ‘108′ for ambulance service, but the driver on duty refused to come. My brother had to wait for two-and-a-half hours which proved fatal. Today, he would have been alive, if we had got that ambulance on time.”Left with few options, the family claimed that they contacted the Baghpat chief medical officer (CMO), who promptly arranged for an ambulance. But, Monty died on the way to the Meerut hospital.CMO (Baghpat) Dr Tirath Lal told TOI: “The patient’s family could have asked a doctor to arrange for an ambulance, but they tried to do it on their own. From our end, an ambulance was sent as soon as we were informed. As far as that driver is concerned, he is not allowed to take a patient to another city without a written permission from health officials.”