It’s Hell for the Poor in India: 12-year-old dies on father’s shoulder after hospital denies admission, stretcher

Kanpur: After the shocking incident of Odisha’s poor man who was forced to walk 10 km carrying his wife’s body on his shoulders, another case of a poor boy dying on his father’s shoulders as the latter walked from hospital to hospital, has put India to shame.

Sunil Kumar from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and his 12-year old son are the latest victims of the apathetic healthcare system in India.
Sunil’s son who had high fever on Sunday night was first taken to a hospital in Fazalgunj in UP but he was directed to go to governemnt-run Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital in Kanpur which has better facilities. Sunil who was too poor to afford a vehicle, carried his son on his shouders, walking a long distance.

The authorities at the LLR hospital refused to attend to his son whose condition had already turned critical. After half an hour, they directed him to take his son to a children’s hospital 250 metres away. Even Sunil’s request for a stretcher to carry his son was turned down by the hospital staff. The boy breathed his last on his father’s shoulders on the way as the poor man walked to the next hospital.

The hapless father’s plight did not end there. The man was forced to carry his son’s body back home on his shoulders as the onlookers and the authorities remained passive witnesses to another Indian tragedy.