AT LONG LAST, OGH CLEARS BODIES
OSMANIA AUTHORITIES HAD DECIDED TO MAKE A NEW PUFF ROOM, BUT THE PROJECT HAS NOT MATERIALISED SO FAR
Singed by public revulsion following the DC report on rotting bodies piled up at the mortuary, Osmania Hospital authorities and the government swung into action to give them a funeral.
Nearly 40 bodies that had been dumped in the old autopsy theatre had decomposed — the hospital had denied that there were any such bodies at the mortuary — were removed by the civic corporation and the last rites performed.
Health minister C. Laxma Reddy has sought a detailed report from the hospital about the non-disposal of the bodies.
The minister was scheduled to visit Osmania Hospital on Saturday to inaugurate the ultrasound and digital x-ray rooms. Before he arrived, GHMC officials came in a fleet of vehicles to take away the bodies.
The bodies did not even have a piece of cloth covering them, as our report had pointed out. GHMC staff brought white cloth with which they covered some of the bodies and tied them before loading them into vans.
OGH superintendent Dr G.V. Murthy claimed that the pile up of unclaimed bodies was unusual and that the hospital co-ordinated with the civic body to dispose of the bodies regularly. There was a few days‘ gap due to which the bodies had piled up.
Dr Taqiuddin Khan, head of the forensic department, had written to the GHMC last week, he said.
Dr Khan told this reporter that he brought the issue to the notice of the GHMC on April 29. They had collected 10 bodies.
The sorry state of affairs at Osmania General Hospital, one of the oldest government hospitals in the state, can be gauged from the fact that there are no proper facilities to preserve bodies, especially the unidentified ones.
The puff rooms are equipped with air-conditioning facility of below 2 degree Celsius to preserve the unidentified bodies for a few days before they are taken away by GHMC for the last rites. However, a big hospital like OGH does not have a functional puff room for the last few years. Hence, unidentified bodies, after post-mortem, are left in the open in an abandoned old autopsy theatre.
The old puff room is not functional and in a irreparable condition. Hence, Osmania authorities had decided long ago to create another puff room, but this is not yet ready.
Dr Taqiuddin Khan said the work was almost complete, but there are some problems with the A/C facility.
“The contractor installed the A/C facility, but the cooling was not as per desired levels. We apply salt before stitching the bodies, so as to prevent release of fluids and bloating, and to ensure that they do not get decomposed. If the air-conditioning is not effective, the puff-room will not serve any purpose,” he pointed out.
Health minister C. Laxma Reddy told Deccan Chronicle that the puff room at OGH would be operational soon. A new puff room is operational at Gandhi Hospital, he said.
Even the freezers to store bodies that reach the mortuary at odd hours are not of much help. The mortuary has eight freezers with a capacity to store four bodies in each freezer. However, two freezers are not in operation. This means the hospital could not preserve more than 24 bodies at a time.
THE MORTUARY has eight freezers with a capacity to store four bodies in each freezer. However, two freezers are not in operation