Reena suffered excessive bleeding and infection due to anaemia.

DEHRADUN: Reena, 28, is barely conscious but whenever she opens her eyes, it is to ask whether her 9-day-old baby girl is fine. The last few days have been especially harrowing for her.

After the birth of her daughter at her home in Buryala village, 37 km from Chakrata on July 15, Reena suffered excessive bleeding and infection due to anaemia. Her condition further deteriorated on Tuesday following which, her husband Ramesh Chauhan decided to take her to the nearest hospital.

However, the problem was that the village with 90-odd families that lies on the outskirts of the state capital, doesn’t have proper roads.

With the help of a few neighbours, Ramesh tied a bedsheet with two bamboo logs to create a makeshift stretcher in order to carry Reena to the hospital.

It took the villagers almost four hours, carrying Reena on their shoulders to the roadhead 13 km away where they waited for another two hours for an ambulance. Eventually, they reached Vikas Nagar health centre around 5 pm on Tuesday and Reena was admitted to Shri Mahant Indiresh hospital around 8 pm the same day.

Doctors at the hospital said that due to the delay in bringing her to the hospital, her infection has spread and she had become critical.

Talking to TOI, Ramesh Chauhan said, “We started around 5.30 am from our house in Buryala on Tuesday and managed to admit Reena at the hospital around 8 pm. In between these 14-odd hours, there were hundreds of moments when she fell unconscious and I feared that I will lose her.”

The problem of road connectivity has been the village’s curse for a long time, he added. “This is not the first time that someone from our village has struggled to get to the nearest healthcare facility. Even students travel around 10 to 15 km on a regular basis to reach schools.”

Ravi Kumar, another villager who accompanied Ramesh to the hospital said, “Last month, a boulder fell on the head of an elderly man and he died before he could be taken to the hospital. Once, a child was going to school when a stone hit him. He was lucky to survive but not all meet the same fate. This is why most parents in our village don’t even want to send their children to school.”

BC Pant, executive engineer of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) when apprised about the matter, told TOI that the Centre has already sanctioned Rs 24 crore for the construction of a 42-km road which includes Buryala village. “The project was expected start earlier but it got delayed in the absence of a forest department approval. The approval is crucial as the road will pass through 29 hectares of forest land. We are expecting the approval soon and the construction will start in the next two months,” he added.

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