JAMSHEDPUR: Fog hung low over the road as a young father emerged from a government hospital in Jharkhand’s Chaibasa with nothing left to save. The body of his four-month-old son lay in a plastic bag that he held close to his chest. No ambulance was ready. There was no money left. So he turned to a public bus and began the 70 km journey home.Dimba Chataumba, a villager from Baljori – a remote settlement under Noamundi PS limits in West Singhbhum district of southern Jharkhand – had come to Chaibasa Sadar Hospital hoping that doctors could keep his child alive. Instead, he had to carry Krishna’s body back himself on Friday evening after the government body said it could not arrange a vehicle in time.Hospital staff told him to wait more than two hours. Their only functioning ambulance was located far away, near Manoharpur, about 80 km from Chaibasa, the district headquarters of West Singhbhum. Chataumba nodded. Then he disappeared.He returned quietly, bought a thick shopping bag from a nearby store, put his son’s 3.6 kg body in it and left without informing anyone, choosing a public bus rather than face an uncertain wait.Krishna had been admitted the day before and was suffering from high fever, limited mobility and difficulty breathing. Blood tests confirmed malaria. Doctors said the child was anemic and critically ill and required respiratory support beyond the hospital’s capacity.“The infant was anemic and in a critical condition. He required ventilator support. On Thursday evening, we asked the boy’s father to take him to Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College & Hospital, Jamshedpur for further treatment,” said district civil surgeon Dr. Bharti Gorreti Mint.Jamshedpur, 70 km from Chaibasa, has advanced remittance facilities. However, achieving this goal costs money that Chataumba did not have. He pleaded to continue treatment at Sadar Hospital. He told doctors he couldn’t afford the transport. Oxygen and medicine were administered, but Krishna died on Friday afternoon.Grief quickly turned into urgency. Chataumba asked for a Shav Vahan, a hearse ambulance, to carry the body home. With just 100 rupees in my pocket, it was impossible to rent a private vehicle. The officers asked him to wait. What happened next happened without witnesses.“No one in the children’s ward, nor the hospital guard, were informed by the father that he was carrying his son’s body in his bag. He quietly left the hospital. We were all in the dark,” Minz added.When Chataumba arrived home, neighbors gathered as he recounted the ordeal, his words causing shock throughout the village.An investigation ordered by the administration later revealed that the father had left precipitously. The report by Chaibasa sub-divisional officer Sandeep Anurag Topno said that Chataumba could not be contacted when the ambulance finally arrived because he did not have a mobile phone.Scenes like these continue to emerge across India, revealing deep gaps in public health and transportation for the poor. In September 2024, a couple from Maharashtra walked through a muddy forest path with the bodies of their two sons after fever claimed their lives and no vehicle came. In June 2025, a tribal man in Nashik traveled 90 km by bus with his newborn’s body in a bag after a civil hospital refused an ambulance.Jharkhand has witnessed many such moments. This year, HC sought explanations from the state after videos showed a man carrying his sick wife on his shoulder when an ambulance did not arrive. The memory of Odisha’s Dana Majhi, who ran 12 kilometers with his wife’s body in 2016, is still vivid, a case that sparked global outrage.But on Friday evening in Chaibasa, those lessons seemed far away. The village of Baljori lies amid forested hills and mining belts near the border with Odisha, where public transport is sparse and private vehicles expensive. For families like Chataumba’s, just one visit to the hospital means debt. A referral to a city hospital may mean surrender.
