Officials who obstructed father's race to get child to hospital to be punished

Authorities in Lanzhou, Gansu province, pledged on Thursday to punish the officials who failed to properly handle an emergency incident that delayed the treatment of a 3-year-old boy who became sick from carbon monoxide poisoning two days ago.

The child's father, surnamed Tuo, said that he made several calls to the local emergency center to seek help after noticing his son had become unwell, but no ambulance came to them.

The incident went viral online, and netizens questioned whether the local emergency response mechanism had responded to the case properly and promptly.

The epidemic prevention and control inspection team stationed in Lanzhou's Qilihe district issued a statement on Thursday detailing the emergency rescue process that day.

The investigation showed that Tuo made four calls to the local emergency center seeking help around noon on Tuesday. He eventually contacted the dispatcher in the emergency dispatch center at 12:18 pm.

After learning about the situation, the dispatcher said that Tuo and his son were in a high-risk area for COVID-19 and needed to arrange online diagnosis and treatment. Later, doctors in Qilihe district tried several times to contact Tuo from 12:32 pm and eventually contacted him at 1:07 pm.

In the following 12 minutes, the doctors conducted an online diagnosis and instructed people on the scene to carry out first-aid, saying the child needed to be treated in the hospital.

The emergency center sent an ambulance at 1:44 pm, according to the statement.

Tuo and his relatives asked to be let out of their locked-down residential compound by the urban management personnel, the community's comprehensive administrators and officials stationed at the community from 1:15 pm to 1:47 pm, but were told instead to dial the emergency medical number or call the police.

In a race to get his son to the hospital, Tuo sought help from a police officer at a nearby road junction at 1:55 pm. The officer helped them stop a taxi, which took them to Gansu Provincial Maternity and Childcare Hospital for emergency treatment in 10 minutes.

Tuo's son was pronounced dead at 3 pm that day after rescue efforts failed. Tuo's wife was sent to another hospital for treatment, and she was discharged after her vital signs returned to normal.

The statement said that units and cadres exposed in the process of poorly handling the incident will be dealt with seriously in accordance with laws and regulations.

The involved authorities must constantly improve their work, optimize the support mechanism and enhance the governance capacity at the grassroots level to resolutely prevent the recurrence of such incidents, the statement said.

On Tuesday, the Qilihe branch of Lanzhou Public Security Bureau also issued a statement saying that the police received a report asking for help at 1:43 pm on Tuesday, and that police officers arrived at the scene 14 minutes later.

The death was caused by carbon monoxide poisoning from the improper use of a gas cooker, said the police's statement.

yangzekun@chinadaily.com.cn