A 16-year-old expectant mother from Pandi Village in Himali Rural Municipality-9 of Bajura died on Thursday as she could not be taken to hospital in time.

The condition of Siddha BK, who started suffering from labour pain on Saturday, had deteriorated suddenly on Wednesday evening. Her family took Siddha to Kolti Primary Health Centre where she died on Thursday morning. Dr Bijaya Kumar Sah of the heath centre said she gave birth to a stillborn baby. “The patient needed to undergo an operation. But the health centre has no facility for surgeries. We tried everything we could to save her but failed to do,” said Sah. Siddha’s relatives said they had waited for aircraft to take her to Nepalgunj for further treatment. The health workers at Kolti had referred the girl to take a Nepalgunj-based hospital. “At first, we planned to have the baby delivered at home. 

“We took her to the health centre only after her condition deteriorated,” said Prasanta BK, brother of Siddha, adding that it was already too late by then. 

The family members said that they could not take Siddha to Martadi Hospital as they would have to trek a whole day to reach there. 

“We didn’t have other alternatives but to wait for the aircraft,” said Prasanta.  The deceased was unmarried. Siddha’s family claimed 26-year-old local man Shreechand Rokaya, father of two daughters, had illicit relationship with her. Rokaya also admitted to having relation with the victim, but did not take responsibility of his sister, Prasanta said. 

The data of Kolti Health Post shows 97 out of 247 pregnant mothers who delivered their babies in the last fiscal year were under 20. The District Health Office record showed that 2,288 pregnant mothers delivered their babies in Bajura in the fiscal year 2016-2017. Among them, 662 were under the age 20.