Kalyan: A 70-year-old man who suffered chest pain outside Kalyan railway station on Wednesday night died allegedly due to a 40-minute delay in the arrival of an ‘108′ ambulance, triggering protests by local residents. However, the attending doctor in the ambulance claimed that they reached the spot within 10 minutes of receiving an alert from the Thane-based control room. As a video of the incident went viral on social media, local residents protested and demanded that a case of culpable homicide be registered against the ambulance driver and the attending doctor, alleging gross negligence in emergency response. ‘108′ ambulance services are expected to respond within 10-15 minutes.The deceased, Mewalal Gupta who resided in Ambivli, had come to Kalyan for some personal work. He was near the Deepak Hotel area in Kalyan (W), when he began experiencing severe chest pain. At 10.09 pm, Gupta called the ‘108′ emergency ambulance service seeking immediate assistance.According to a passerby, who stayed with Gupta, an ambulance was stationed at the nearby Rukminibai Hospital, barely three minutes away from the spot, but reached the location only at 10.45 pm, resulting in a delay of nearly 40 minutes.However, Dr Taufiq Khan, who arrived in the ‘108′ ambulance, said they received a call from the Thane-based control room at 10.29 pm about a patient near Kalyan station complaining of chest pain and they reached the spot in 10 minutes. “When I examined the patient, he had already died. Locals then expressed anger and protested against us,” Dr Khan said.Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation’s chief medical officer Dr Deepa Shukla said Gupta was brought to Rukminibai Hospital, where doctors examined him and declared him dead on arrival. She clarified that ‘108′ ambulance services are controlled by the Thane district administration, while the civic body operates five separate ambulances at the hospital.Eyewitnesses and local residents expressed anger over the delayed ambulance response, stating that timely medical intervention could have saved the man’s life.
