‘Baby died as care delayed’: Agra family blames pothole for 2-hour ambulance delay

Nidhi Singh, 22, went into labour around 1 am on September 2. Her family in Agra dialled the emergency number, requesting an ambulance to take her to the Community Health Centre (CHC), around 9 km from their home in Garhwar village.

But the ambulance reportedly got stuck in a pothole about 2 km from Nidhi’s home. It took Nidhi’s husband Parvendra Bhadouria, 25, and villagers nearly two hours to pull the vehicle out with a tractor. Nidhi was eventually taken to a private hospital and delivered at 5 am — but the baby had died, her family alleged.

The incident came to light on Sunday, after a purported video showing the ambulance being dragged out of the pothole went viral on social media. He said a stretch of the link road to Garhwar village in Bah tehsil, built by the Public Works Department, had been washed away during the rains about a month ago.

Villagers had alerted the officials, but repair work was never carried out, he claimed in the complaint. Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Agra, Vinod Kumar said the administration has sought an explanation from the PWD regarding when the pothole appeared and why it had not been repaired.

Sources said the pothole was 10X3 feet wide and two feet deep. According to Bhanu Pratap, the ambulance driver had called the number from which the request had originated, explaining that the vehicle was stuck in a pothole.

Villagers rushed to the scene and tried pushing the vehicle out, eventually using a tractor. The vehicle then took an alternate route to Nidhi’s home and took her to the CHC. On reaching the CHC, Pratap said in his complaint, doctors told them an operation would be required but would be done the next day.

“So we decided to take Nidhi to a nearby private hospital. The delivery was carried out at 5 am… the baby was dead,” said Singh, alleging that doctors there said the newborn had allegedly stopped breathing due to the delay in medical care.