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Protest erupt in Uttara Kannada's Mundgod as 5-year-old dies due to alleged negligence

Source: , Posted On:   02 January 2025

A five-year-old girl tragically died in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district on Tuesday, December 31, allegedly due to medical negligence. Mayuri Suresh, a resident of Mundgod town, was bitten by a snake, but her parents claim the local government hospital refused to provide timely treatment, forcing them to transport her to a hospital in Hubbali. Mayuri died en route, prompting her family to file a police complaint against the Taluk hospital, accusing it of gross negligence.

As per details, Mayuri who was at the local anganwadi was bitten by a snake at around 10 am when she went to urinate in the open. Though she was rushed to the Taluk hospital in Mundgod which is about 1.5km away from the anganwadi, the doctors exhibited extreme neglect, alleged Mahalakshmi Jagadish Naik, convenor of Lokmanch.

“The doctors did not attend to Mayuri for nearly half an hour, after which they said that she had to be taken to Karnataka Medical College and Research Institute (KMCRI) in Hubbali, which is one-and-a-half hours by road,” she said speaking to TNM.  

Expressing outrage over the death, about a hundred activists and residents of the town staged a protest in front of the Tahsildar’s office demanding accountability. “Why was there no anti-snake venom at the taluk hospital? Why was she made to wait there for so long? She died on the way to Hubbali. This should not happen to any other child,” Mahalakshmi said. 

In a memorandum submitted to the Tahsildar, the protesters said that the anganwadi staff must also be held accountable for not allowing the child to use the toilet facilities and instead made her go out into the open to urinate.

In March 2024, the state government had identified all taluk and district hospitals as snake-bite treating centres, after its decision to make snake bites a notifiable disease. 

Meanwhile, the Mundgod police told TNM that they had written to the District Health Officer regarding a preliminary inquiry into the allegations against the Mundgod hospital. An FIR is yet to be registered.

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