Tharparkar hospital refuses ambulance for deceased toddler's body citing no petrol budget

THARPARKAR: A hospital on Monday refused to provide ambulance service to the parents of a deceased toddler to transport his body, citing lack of a petrol budget.

The four-month-old boy had passed away in Civil Hospital Mithi earlier in the day but the medical facility's administration refused to provide an ambulance.

According to the Tharparkar hospital sources, the management explained to Ahmed Ali — the late toddler's father and a resident of Manjhi village in Islamkot — that they did not have any budget to pay for petrol in the ambulance.

Ali and his wife told media that the hospital refused to provide ambulance service to them in order to shift their late baby boy's body back home and that they could not take it home for four hours as they did not have the money to pay the transportation cost.

The bereaved parents resorted to hold a sit-in at Civil Hospital Mithi's main gate.

When asked for a comment, the hospital's civil surgeon Dr Gul Munir said he did not have any petrol budget for the ambulance and, therefore, could not give the ambulance service for free.