Puducherry, November 2: In a heart-wrenching incident, a senior citizen who faced an emergency health issue died enroute to hospital as his kin could not arrange for an ambulance. The deceased, identified as Subramani, collapsed on Friday at his sister's house in Puducherry's Suthukeni. The family belonged to the backward Irulu tribe and did not had mobile phones to call an ambulance. They carried him to the nearest hospital, located 4 km away, on a hand cart. Assam Medical Apathy: Woman Gives Birth on Make-Shift Stretcher Made of Cot, Plastic Sheet And Cloth While She Was Carried For 5 km.

On reaching the hospital, the 65-year-old was declared dead on arrival. The hospital authorities were urged by the bereaved family to arrange for an ambulance to take the body to Subramani's native village located 25 km away in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram district.

The hospital, however, turned down their request claiming that their ambulance do not have the inter-state permit. The family was then carrying Subramani back on their cart to Suthukeni village. On the way, a J Muruganandan, a police officer, spotted them and arranged for an NGO-run ambulance.

While speaking to reporters, Subramani's sister said her brother was suffering from tuberculosis and was likely to have collapsed due to the TB-related ailments. Enroute to the hospital, she claimed, several onlookers were clicking photos of their plight but none of them called the ambulance. "Had anyone of them helped, he might had perhaps been alive," she said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 02, 2019 08:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).