Such is the state of medical care in Chhattisgarh that a woman had to walk 110 km for 15 days to reach a government-run hospital to get her burnt hands treated.

In September, Phoolwati, 25, and her husband Roop Singh were burnt when the kerosene stove burst in their hut in Bakalo village within the jurisdiction of the Kapu police station in Raigarh district. Sans any medical treatment, Roop Singh battled his burn injuries for a week and then died.

Phoolwati then found insects crawling inside her burnt hands and realised she had no option but to go to the district headquarters here and seek medical treatment. There was no government-run health facility nearby that could tackle her problem.

'I did not have a single paisa to get treatment from any private doctor or to get into a bus so that I could come here. So I had no option but to walk the 110 km to get admitted to Raigarh hospital. I had found several insects in my burn wounds and the problem was getting worse every day,' Phoolwati told IANS at the hospital.

Raigarh is 240 km northeast of state capital Raipur.

'During the entire 15-day journey I begged for food from local people alongside the road. Here a worker in a medicine shop brought me to the district government hospital. The doctor here removed all the insects. Now I feel my injuries have healed a little,' the childless widow said in between sobs.

A. Tirki, the doctor who operated upon Phoolwati, said: 'Her wound was filled with dozens of insects when she came to me last week. I have cleaned up her wounds and hopefully within a fortnight she will recover. But she would surely have lost both her hands if she had reached the hospital even a week later.'

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