Dengue and suicide case: neighbours in shock

New Delhi: Shocked over the incident, the neighbours of seven-year-old Avinash Rout who died of dengue following which his parents committed suicide by jumping from a four-storeyed building in South Delhi’s Lado Sarai, are yet to come to terms with sudden demise of the family.

Stating that they never thought Laxmichandra and Babita Rout, both natives of Odisha, would take such an extreme step, their neighbours blamed the hospitals for their lax and inhuman attitude, which according to them led to the child’s demise.

The couple’s only son, Avinash, died of dengue on September 8 after allegedly being denied admission at five prominent private hospitals on the previous day.

“Their child had contracted dengue and was being treated at Batra hospital. When their child passed away the parents were crestfallen. We went to Chhattarpur where the final rites were performed and the child was buried,” said Gyanendra Devashish, a neighbour of the deceased family.

“I left them at their home around midnight. I got to know at around 2 AM that they were not at home so again I went to the place where they had buried the child thinking that the parents might have gone there to mourn their son’s death.

“But they were not there. When I reached home, got to know about their suicide. I was shocked,” Devashish added.

Another neighbor, Hemant Kumar, said the couple was too much depressed with the incident.

“They had told me that their child’s treatment got delayed as he was denied admission by several hospitals because of which ultimately he died.

“The wife was saying that she wants to go where her child is. However her husband was in control. At late in the night we heard about the incident,” said Kumar.

Another neighbour blamed the hospital’s careless and inhuman attitude because of which he claimed, the child died.

“Had the child got timely treatment, he could have perhaps been saved,” he said.

The incident has sparked widespread outrage with Delhi government slapping show-cause notices on the five private hospitals asking why their registration should not be cancelled.

–PTI