No Staff, No Ambulance: Indore Couple Carries Son On Stretcher Between Hospitals In Heat

In Madhya Pradesh's biggest government hospital ecosystem, a 12-year-old child lay on a stretcher under a blazing sun, while his parents became the hospital staff, the ward boys and the ambulance.

Between MY Hospital and the Super Speciality Hospital in Indore, a scene unfolded that looked less like a medical referral and more like a public indictment of the state's healthcare system. In scorching heat, the parents of 12-year-old Adarsh were allegedly forced to push his stretcher for nearly a kilometre after he was referred for a spinal problem.

The mother walked alongside him, repeatedly dipping her chunni in water and placing it over her son's body to shield him from the sun. The father pulled the stretcher. There was no ward boy, no attendant, no transport support, only a desperate family trying to move a sick child through a government hospital complex that spends crores on outsourced support systems.

According to the family, Adarsh had been undergoing treatment for around 15 days and was earlier admitted in the New Chest Ward at MY Hospital. He was referred to the Super Speciality Hospital because of a spinal issue. But when the family reached there, they were allegedly told that the child did not need admission and that only the file and documents had to be examined. The family then had to bring him back to MY Hospital again on the stretcher, on their own.

MY Hospital Superintendent Dr Ashok Yadav said the matter has come to his notice. Since the video appears to show the area near Chacha Nehru Children's Hospital, officials are trying to ascertain whether the child was referred from MY Hospital or from Chacha Nehru Hospital.

Meanwhile, Dr Piyush Panchariya, In-charge Superintendent of the Super Speciality Hospital, said he was occupied with a surgery and that inquiries were being made to determine whether the child was admitted there and what condition he was suffering from.

This is not the first time MY Hospital has been in the spotlight over patient-handling failures. In March 2026, another video from Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital showed relatives moving patients on stretchers and wheelchairs inside the hospital, prompting fresh concern over staff support and hospital management. In February 2026, a viral video showed women pushing a patient on a stretcher across a road after the hospital gate was allegedly closed; the hospital superintendent had then assured inquiry and action. 

But the more disturbing pattern involves children. In January 2026, MY Hospital came under fire after a nurse allegedly severed the thumb of a one-and-a-half-month-old infant while removing an IV cannula the child had to undergo urgent surgery at the Super Specialty Hospital for reattachment, and disciplinary action followed. 

Months before that, two newborns in the hospital's NICU allegedly suffered rat-bite injuries, with officials acknowledging a rat infestation and later ordering pest-control measures. The controversy escalated further after reports of newborn deaths linked by families to rat bites, though the hospital disputed the cause and cited other medical complications.