Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh) : A two-room house in Dongar village, Parasia block, is cluttered with medical receipts, hospital papers, and breathing pumps. In a corner lies a small bottle of Coldrif cough syrup. It was prescribed by a doctor and it’s what Afsana Khan trusted with her four-year-old son Usaid’s life. It turned out to be a killer.

“He cried, ammi, take me home, I’m in pain,” she recalled. Hours later, doctors in Nagpur, where he’d been rushed from neighbouring Chhindwara for treatment, declared Usaid dead. She sits on a makeshift iron bed under an asbestos-patched roof, her voice breaking as she remembers that night.

The syrup was meant to treat Usaid’s cold and fever. Instead, it caused vomiting, swelling, and kidney failure. Afsana had promised him she would send hi

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