Autistic girl, 5, suffers 18-hour delay as 3 Kolkata hospitals fail to provide urgent burn treatment

A five-year-old autistic girl from Habra named Anwesha Mandal endured an 18-hour delay in receiving treatment after accidentally consuming boiling water, causing severe burns to her mouth and lips. The child’s ordeal began around 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday when her parents, Hemanta and Gauri Mandal, rushed her to Habra State General Hospital. However, despite immediate admission, the hospital lacked the specialized infrastructure to treat burn injuries of this severity.

After eight hours at Habra State General Hospital, hospital authorities informed Anwesha's parents that they could not provide the required care, recommending a transfer to a larger facility in Kolkata. At 5:45 p.m., the family reached RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where Anwesha was briefly assessed in the emergency department. However, staff at RG Kar explained that the facility did not have specialized burn treatment options and advised the parents to take Anwesha to NRS Medical College. Before their departure, RG Kar staff reportedly took back the emergency ticket issued to them, which left the family without documentation of their visit there.

With no other options, the parents brought Anwesha to SSKM Hospital around 9 p.m. At SSKM, they encountered multiple obstacles and were redirected through several departments, including emergency, pediatric, and trauma care units. After multiple inquiries and repeated departmental transfers, Anwesha was finally assigned a bed in the ENT department at 1 a.m., over 18 hours after the initial injury. Reports indicate that the ENT department began dedicated treatment for her burns only after the extended delay.

The family’s situation was brought to public attention when Anwesha’s schoolteacher, Amrita Mukhopadhyay, shared details of the incident on social media, sparking an outcry. Mukhopadhyay’s post gained traction, leading several local civil society groups and social media users to reach out to healthcare professionals. Junior doctors at SSKM responded to the situation, helping to secure a bed for Anwesha in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

This incident has sparked renewed scrutiny over the Health Department’s referral system, which has been under review with pilot projects launched in regions including Kolkata, Diamond Harbour, and Raiganj. The projects aim to reduce the need for emergency referrals to larger facilities; however, gaps in resources and staffing continue to impact patients requiring urgent care. The repeated referrals and lack of specialized treatment infrastructure across facilities underscore persistent challenges within the healthcare system, even in cases involving critical pediatric care.