Bhanushankar Joshi died in Gandhinagar before an ambulance carrying him could reach hospital. It was delayed because of the passing VIP motorcade.
An 86-year-old man, Bhanushankar Joshi, died here on Friday apparently because he arrived a few minutes too late at the hospital. The ambulance in which he was being taken to hospital was held up at around 11 am at CH-0 circle in Gandhinagar where traffic had been stopped to allow the Governor's motorcade unobstructed passage.
Traffic began moving again when the convoy carrying the Governor had passed but the few minutes' delay proved fatal for Joshi. When the ambulance carrying him finally arrived at Apollo Hospital, the doctors said he was already dead.
The grief-stricken relatives of Joshi say he had died because of the delay caused by the ambulance having to wait in traffic to allow the Governor's motorcade to pass.
The ambulance had started from the Hi-Tech Hospital in Sector 3 of Gandhinagar. According to Joshi's relatives, it was stopped for almost 15 minutes at CH-0 circle because of which it took almost 15 minutes longer to reach Apollo Hospital in Bhatt village of Gandhinagar.
"We requested the policemen on duty to allow the ambulance to pass but, instead of letting us go, they were rude to us," Joshi's grandson, Mitul, told DNA.
Bhanushankar Joshi, a senior advocate of Sabarkanta, had been living in Gandhinagar for the last few years. Late on Thursday evening, he was admitted in the intensive care unit of Hi-Tech Hospital for treatment of a heart problem but, till Friday morning, there was no improvement in his condition. The doctors of the hospital advised his family members on Friday to shift Joshi to a bigger hospital.
"We were advised to shift him to Apollo Hospital, and he was taken there in an ambulance," said Mitul Joshi. The ambulance was stopped by the police at CH-0 circle in Gandhinagar and was allegedly forced to stay in traffic for around 15 minutes.
However, the superintendent of police, Gandhinagar, Archana Shivhare, is not ready to accept that the ambulance had to wait for 15 minutes.
"It took no more than 3-4 minutes for the motorcade to clear the area," she told DNA. She said that the incident was unfortunate but the traffic bandobast was not responsible for it. Shivhare said that the ambulance was stuck behind a ST bus and four cars and it was not possible for the police to extricate it from the middle of the traffic.
"A big vehicle like an ST bus cannot be allowed to get out of the traffic exactly when the convoy is passing. Hence the ambulance, which was stuck behind the bus, had to wait," she said, adding that, normally, the police never stop an ambulance even when a VIP convoy is passing.
Talking to DNA, Dr Khilan Maniya, who treated Bhanushankar Joshi at Hi-Tech Hospital, told DNA that Joshi was admitted at the hospital in a very serious condition. "When he did not show any improvement, I decided to shift him to Apollo, which is a bigger hospital. Joshi was alive when he left Hi-Tech hospital," Maniya said.
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