Cruise accident survivor alleges hospital neglect:Savita from Israel says no medicine given, but hospital handed over bill

“We had touched death and come back, our hearts were in our throats, but the hospital was more concerned about its bill than our lives.” These are the words of Savita Verma from Varanasi, an eyewitness and victim of the horrific cruise accident in Bhedaghat, Jabalpur. Savita, who returned to her homeland after 16 years due to the war in Israel, had no idea that the disorganisation and insensitivity of her own country would hurt her more than the fear of losing her loved ones. No medicine was given, but a bill was certainly handed over Recounting her ordeal after the accident, Savita Verma levelled serious allegations against private hospitals in Jabalpur. She stated that when she was taken to the hospital, neither her phone was working nor the money in her pocket was working. Savita said, “I felt very bad about this… We don’t know which hospital they took us to. All our phones were dead. We couldn’t contact each other. 50 people came asking for our names. We were asking about our people, but no one was there to tell or help. Everyone’s notes were wet, we couldn’t make online payments, and the hospital staff first handed us the bill. You can take the address and phone number. We can pay online. When such incidents happen, do the hospitals here not help at all? Is there no helpline or facility?” Didn’t even give medicine, handed over the bill Savita said, “They gave us a TT and a painkiller, and for that, they handed us a bill of 4700. They gave my sister three or four stitches and didn’t give any medicine, but handed over a bill of 4700. My brother lives in Banaras, and some people’s iPhones were working, so I called him and he made the payment from there. I don’t know anything about this place.” Safe from the war in Israel, ‘unsafe’ in their own city Savita said that she lived in Israel for 16 years and for the last 2-3 years, she was in a war-like environment there. She never thought that after coming to India, she would face such an unfortunate incident at a small tourist spot. “I used to tell my family that there is a lot of protection in Israel, don’t worry. But here? Here, neither was any life jacket rule strictly enforced, nor did the crew members know how to deal with an emergency.” My son distributed life jackets to people Remembering the accident, Savita became emotional. She said that suddenly the weather changed and the boat started filling with water. People started panicking, and children were screaming. Instead of the crew members, her 22-year-old son and other passengers were helping each other. Savita’s son helped others instead of wearing a life jacket himself and tried to remove water from the sinking boat. Savita said that when the boat capsized, she had a child in her arms. For two seconds, it felt like everything was over, but by the grace of ‘Narmada Maiya’ and ‘Bholenath’, she managed to get out of the water. Savita raised big questions about the system