Chatra villagers carry patient on cot across river for hospitalisation

Chatra: As many as 50 residents of Hesatu village in Chatra’s Pratappur block carried an accident victim, who suffered a fracture in his hip bone, on a cot and crossed a nullah and a rain-fed river to an ambulance which was waiting at the other bank of the river. The incident took place roughly 58 kilometres from the Chatra town.
The victim, Munarik Baiga (22), a resident of Hesatu village, was returning home on his motorcycle when he met an accident and fractured his hip bone.Seeing Munarik’s plight, the villager stepped forward to help and decided to ferry him on a cot as there was no pucca road out of the hamlet.
As many as 50 men took turns to carry Munarik in the cot and crossed the stream which flowed next to the village. Once the stream was crossed, the men then marched ahead towards the Morhar river and braved the currents as the rain-fed river’s water levels were higher than normal.
Kapil Yadav, a native of the village, said they had called a 108 ambulance to ferry Munarik to the Pratappur community health centre. “Since there is no bridge over the Morhar river, the ambulance waited on the riverside at Sidki Panchayat while we crossed it. The distance between the two villages is four kilometres and it took us nearly four hours to cover the distance,” Yadav said.
“Upon reaching Sidki, the ambulance took Munarik to the health centre but the doctors referred him to the Chatra sadar hospital,” Dwarika Vishwakarma, another villager who helped carry Munarik, said. Sandeep Yadav, another Hesatu resident, said, “What we have done for Munarik is not new to us. To save lives, we have been carrying patients in need of medical care on cots for quite some time now.”
The locals said Hesatu village comprises over 150 households and its population is mostly of people from Baiga tribes and other OBC communities.
Chatra deputy development commissioner Utkarsh Gupta said, “We have come to know about the case today only. We will ensure bridges on Hesatu Nala and Morhar river soon after getting them passed from gram sabha.”