Flash flood: Pregnant woman waits 3 hours for an ambulance in Kalaburagi

A pregnant woman had to wait for about three hours in an ambulance near a submerged low-lying bridge between Pattan village and Kalaburagi in the early hours of Tuesday. However, the deft driver of the 108 ambulance managed to ferry the woman to the a hospital braving flood waters.

Heavy showers lashed Pattan, Gola and Kadaganchi villages of Aland taluk in the wee hours of Tuesday. A flash flood submerged the bridge connecting Pattan and Kalaburagi, thus cutting off road connectivity.

As Rasika Patil of Pattan developed labour pain in the morning, her family members called a 108 ambulance to ferry the pregnant woman to Savalagi Primary Health Centre.

As the water was gushing above the low-lying bridge, the ambulance ferrying the pregnant woman had to wait for three hours. However, Mohammed Ali, the driver of the ambulance was worried that any more delay may result in deterioration of the woman's condition, and took the risk of navigating across the submerged bridge.

Over 20 girl students headed to the high school in Pattan neighbouring villages returned home since there was no sign of the floods receding. Tur crop has been damaged as water entered the agricultural lands.