5 Bodies Left On Stretchers Due To Shortage Of Freezers After Chhattisgarh Accident

Five people, including four family members and the car driver, died in a horrific accident on Sunday evening when an SUV carrying them collided with a truck in the Kabirdham district of Chhattisgarh, police said.

All residents of Kolkata were returning to Bilaspur to board a train for their city after visiting Kanha National Park in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. The accident occurred when their SUV, a Bolero, collided head-on with a speeding truck. The impact of this was so brutal that the rescuers struggled to pull out the victims.

While the crash itself was horrific, what followed at the Bodla Community Health Center (CHC), where the victims were taken, was a deeper tragedy, one that exposed the stark reality of rural healthcare in Chhattisgarh.

While two died on the spot, three others died during treatment. But due to a lack of infrastructure, their bodies were left on stretchers for nearly 24 hours. Only one freezer was available, and it was used to preserve the driver's body. The other four bodies were laid outside, covered in sheets, slowly decomposing.

The family members arrived from Kolkata the next day and were met not with solace, but with the unbearable sight and smell of decay. As temperatures rose and the bodies began to stink, the situation became unbearable. With no option left, two of the bodies were buried in Kawardha itself, while the remaining three were taken to Kolkata on Monday.

Questions are being raised over why a government health center, responsible for an entire block, had no functional freezer capacity to handle multiple fatalities from such accidents.

Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Dr Devendra Purre attempted to clarify, "One body was kept in the freezer while the rest were preserved on ice blocks. Post-mortems were conducted on three bodies on Monday. The families took those away, while the remaining two were cremated in Kawardha with their consent."

Kawardha district, with a population of nearly a million, reportedly has only four body freezers: two at the District Hospital, one at the Bodla CHC, and one at the Pandariya Health Center. When all are occupied, officials use ice blocks to preserve the bodies.

The lack of storage facilities led to the spread of infection in two bodies, making it impossible for families to take them back to Kolkata for cremation.

The accident took place around 5 pm on October 5th, when a truck from Chhattisgarh's Kawardha to Madhya Pradesh's Amarkantak collided with a Bolero carrying the Kolkata tourists. The impact of which was so powerful that the Bolero was torn apart, and its passengers were trapped in the wreckage. Eyewitnesses said the screams of the victims echoed on the deserted road until help arrived.