Rural families in Agra incur debts to pay private hospitals to treat their kids for dengue and fever
At least eight kids have died in Agra, Uttar Pradesh due to ‘fever’ whereas the district has reported 56 confirmed dengue cases so far. Rural people have little faith in the government health infrastructure and are borrowing heavily to get their children treated at private hospitals.
Rasulpur and Khadiya (Agra), Uttar Pradesh
Lying under the same striped sheet on a mud floor were siblings ten-year-old Ruby and two-year-old Sachin, children of Savitri Devi and Suresh Chandra. They looked like they were asleep, but wailing women surrounded them.
Ruby and Sachin lay dead, while two of their other siblings, four-year-old Dimpy, and nine-year-old Dimple, were admitted.
to a private hospital in Agra, nearly 40 kms away from their house in Rasulpur village in Fatehpur Sikri block.
About two lakh rupees have been spent so far, said Dablu Rajput, a member of the grief-stricken Chandra family. “The two children who are now admitted at the private hospital are costing us nearly ten thousand rupees a day each,” Roshan Lal, grandfather of the deceased kids, told Gaon Connection.
Also Read: Two kids in a family die within two days, three hospitalised; ‘fever’ deaths continue in Agra, UP
Having lost his two kids to ‘fever’ on September 19, Suresh Chandra, their father, has now been arranging for money for the treatment of his two other children.
The horror of the dengue outbreak continues to play out in Uttar Pradesh where a number of districts, including Agra, have witnessed a rise in the vector-borne diseases. Gaon Connection met the families of eight children in the district who lost their lives due to ‘fever’.
Hundreds of anxious family members are rushing their kids to hospitals nearby. As the cases rise, so do the debts of the villagers, who have little trust or confidence in government health centres or services.
Mohini Singh, all of 13 years, from Khadiya village in Khandauli block of Agra district, breathed her last on September 16 after battling high fever, stomach pain, exhaustion and vomiting for five days. Her father, who has been unwell himself with fever and vomiting, is struggling to look after the other members of his family, many of whom are now admitted into a private hospital in Agra.
Also Read: Firozabad echoes with the wails of grieving mothers whose children succumbed to a mystery fever
“The community health centre is not admitting such patients. All they did was provide some medicines that did not help,” Gajendra Singh, Mohini’s uncle, told Gaon Connection. “We have taken loans amounting to one lakh rupees to treat our family members at private hospitals because the chances of them surviving in government hospitals are nil,” he said, unequivocally.
Of the 22 members of Mohini’ family, 11 of them are presently down with dengue-like symptoms. One of them is Mohini’s mother who is unaware that her daughter has died.
Children continue to die due to ‘fever’
“My son Dimpy was the first to fall ill and get admitted at Bharatpur. The same day (September 16), Dimple was admitted too,” an exhausted Savitri Devi, a resident of Rasulpur village in Fatehpur Sikri, told Gaon Connection. Bharatpur in Rajasthan is about 17 kilometres from her village.
In the next two days, Savitri’s two other kids – Ruby and Sachin – were admitted to the hospital too, and both died on September 19.
“When Sachin and Ruby died, we brought Dimpy and Dimple out of the private hospital in Bharatpur,” Roshan Lal, the children’s grandfather, told Gaon Connection.
According to him, several officials who visited the bereaved family members, asked them to admit the surviving children into the government Sarojini Naidu Medical College in Agra. But, what awaited the family was another nightmare.
“Our children were put on a single cot along with another woman who was bleeding. We had to sign a declaration saying the hospital was not responsible in case there was a mishap, and the doctors there were not even willing to give us a hearing,” Lal narrated.
Having already lost two children, the family was not taking any chances, and Dimple and Dimpy were moved to another private hospital in Agra.
Also Read: Firozabad mystery fever: Two days of fever and stomach ache, and Manya is now just a memory
On September 19, when Sachin and Ruby breathed their last at a private hospital in Bharatpur, the same day, Jivya, the one-year-old daughter of Brajesh Kushwaha, died due to fever in Khadiya village of Agra. She was a neighbour of 13-year-old Mohini, who too had died of fever three days earlier on September 16.
“At least thirty five to forty people in the village are in need of medical attention and their relatives are taking them to private hospitals,” Bhudev Singh, a resident of Khadiya village and also a relative of the deceased Mohini, told Gaon Connection.
Meanwhile, in Mahadevi Nagar of Agra, on September 15 and 16, Bipin Baghel’s children, three year-old Pari and her two-year-old brother, Anshu died due to suspected dengue.
In the town panchayat of Pinahat, on September 19, Chotu, the 14-year-old son of Ravi Pandey died of fever and, on the same day, 25 kms away in Bah village, Bhupendra lost his eight-month-old baby girl.
Villagers complain that lack of proper treatment at the government health centres was forcing them to seek healthcare from private hospitals where medical bills run into hundreds of thousands.
“I took my niece who has a fever to the Community Health Centre at Fatehpur Sikri. They dispatched us to some other place where a camp was being held. It is two days now and we are still waiting for the reports,” Shyam Veer, an inhabitant from Rasulpur village in Fatehpur Sikri, told Gaon Connection, angrily.
“With this kind of indifference and callousness shown by government health facilities, we have no option but to go to private hospitals,” he said. “We are mortgaging or selling our lands, jewellery or taking loans. The only alternative to this is allowing our children to die,” Veer lashed out.
‘No deaths due to dengue’
Whereas children in Agra district are falling prey to fever, with some confirmed dengue cases too, district health officials claim there have been no dengue deaths.
“So far there is no death of any child reported due to dengue in Agra. There are about 56 dengue patients, including children, in the district, and about five hundred and sixty five patients with fever that has not yet been confirmed as dengue,” Arun Kumar Srivastava, chief medical officer, Agra district, told Gaon Connection.
In Fatehpur Sikri, Gaon Connection met Vinod Kumar, a doctor at the Community Health Centre, who admitted two siblings from Rasulpur village – Ruby and Sachin – had died in Bharatpur. On being asked what was the cause of their death, he said: “I have not seen their death summary report. But I was told they had a fever and were suspected dengue patients.”
According to CMO Srivastava, “People should report fevers to us and we will do the needful to get them treated. Wherever there have been cases of fever, the areas are being sprayed, fogged and cleaned up.” The nagar nigams and the panchayats have been instructed to disinfect and clean the areas on war footing, the health official added.
Written and edited by Pankaja Srinivasan