KHARGONE: A pregnant woman in Khargone district’s Bhikangaon area was taken to hospital on a bullock cart and then a two-wheeler on Friday evening after a 108 ambulance got stuck in mud on a kutcha road.The woman later delivered an intrauterine dead girl at the community health centre, sparking allegations by villagers that the poor road delayed treatment, while doctors said that the road condition had no bearing on the death.According to Rajkumar Badole, a resident of Mangiya Faliya of Pipliya panchayat, his relative Shivani developed pain on Friday evening. An ASHA worker was called in, who immediately informed the 108 ambulance service. Badole alleged that the journey on the bad road took nearly an hour and claimed that had the road been in proper condition, Shivani would have reached the hospital in time and her baby might have survived. He said the area’s 121 households had submitted several applications seeking construction of the road, but no work had been carried out.Block Medical Officer (BMO) of Bhikangaon Dr Vijay Verma told TOI that ASHA worker Rachna reached Shivani at around 6.20 pm and immediately alerted the ambulance. The vehicle headed towards Mangiya Faliya in Pipliya village, about two km from Bhikangaon, but got stuck in mud on the kutcha road and could not proceed.With the ambulance stranded, villagers carried Shivani on a bullock cart for nearly two km across the muddy stretch to the paved road. She was then taken to the CHC on a two-wheeler, reaching there at 7.20 pm, the BMO said .Dr Verma said the medical examination established that the baby was an intrauterine death and had died around two days before delivery. Shivani delivered the baby girl at around 7.42 pm, but the child was still born. He said the foetus was macerated, with peeling skin and ruptured membranes, findings consistent with death before labour.“Shivani had not felt any foetal movement since Wednesday morning. Her vital parameters were normal and she is stable,” the BMO said.Dr Verma said that there was no medical evidence linking the baby’s death to the jolts of the bullock-cart journey, as the foetus had died earlier. He said a detailed report was being sent to Khargone CMHO and Collector.Shivani has two daughters. Dr Verma said she had gone to Gujarat with her husband Vikram for work on July 25 and returned to the village on Sept 14.Khargone CMHO Dr Daulat Singh Chauhan told TOI that the woman was working as a labourer in Gujarat during a critical stage of her pregnancy and was therefore not under the monitoring of the local health department. He said she had not been experiencing foetal movements and that the foetus had died two to three days earlier. Due to a lack of awareness, the health department was not informed in time, he added.Officials said a proposal for construction of a road on this route had already been submitted.
