Why civic-run hospitals keep bodies longer than 2-hr limit REALITY CHECK

While the state health department has ordered disposal of bodies of Covid-19 patients within two hours, a ground reality check by HT shows that the four major Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (Bmc)-run hospitals are forced to hold the bodies longer in their morgues, mostly on humanitarian grounds.

DIFFICULTIES, PROBE According to the department’s rules based on the guidelines of the Union health ministry, dead bodies need to be removed from the ward within 30 minutes and disposed of within two hours. Forensic experts claim the time limit is not feasible. Firstly, a large city like Mumbai gets patients from far-off areas in Thane and Navi Mumbai. In some cases, the families refuse to take the bodies, fearing infection. Also, the lockdown makes it difficult for relatives to find vehicles to reach hospitals in time. In some cases, relatives can’t reach hospitals as they either are in isolation centres or home quarantine.

A case in point could be a 73-year-old woman, resident of Kalapani, who succumbed to her infection at King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital on April 18. Around 2am, the family received a call from the hospital to take away the body, but her two sons, their wives and children were quarantined. One of their relatives agreed to claim the body, but couldn’t find a vehicle to reach the hospital.

“We tried private vehicles and ambulances, but no one agreed to take my uncle to the hospital. We requested a neighbour who has an auto to ferry him, but he refused. We had to request the hospital to keep the body till morning,” said Rohit Kumar, 21, the grandson of the deceased patient.

Currently, as of Monday, there are 14 unclaimed bodies of both Covid and non-covid patients lying in the morgues of KEM, BYL Nair, Topiwala General Municipal Hospital also known as Sion hospital and Dr RN Cooper Municipal General Hospital. Of these, six are in Cooper Hospital and Nair Hospitals each, one each in KEM and Sion hospital. “Most of them are from other districts and states. Due to the lockdown, the families asked us to hold the bodies. So, on humanitarian grounds, we held it for four-five days now,” said a forensic expert from Cooper Hospital.

The hospitals have now initiated talks with the police to discause pose of the bodies. “The relatives plead and cry on phones. They request us to allow them to see their beloved ones one last time,” said the officer.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) clearly states that hospitals can hand over bodies of suspected patients without waiting for swab reports. In some cases, forensic experts have to hold the bodies when they think further investigation is needed into the death.

At Sion hospital, forensic resident doctors have been stationed at the casualty ward to screen bodies. On Tuesday, the body of a 32-year-old woman was taken to the hospital with bruise marks. When questioned, the family said, she had symptoms like coronavirus. “The on-duty doctor was suspicious of the marks so we held the body and we are waiting for her swab report. If the result is negative, we will have to conduct a post-mortem to confirm the of death,” said a senior doctor from the forensic department of the hospital.

VIDEOS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Recently, the BMC was criticised when videos on social media went viral showing Covid patients lying beside corpses in civic hospitals. In response to the videos, forensic experts said those are meant to defame the hospitals and extremely discouraging for staffers who work around-theclock. “On a daily basis, we receive around five-eight Covid bodies. We try to quickly dispose of them, but it takes time to inform family and provide them the time. We have to take help from police to contact families as often, due to stigma, they give wrong addresses and phone numbers,” said a forensic expert from Nair Hospital.

When the videos from Sion and KEM hospitals were circulated,

Opposition leaders claimed the hospital morgues don’t have space to keep the bodies. A check done by HT shows that such claims are incorrect.

In the past one month, the four civic-run hospitals have disposed of around 125 non-covid unclaimed bodies to make space for Covid bodies. Of these, KEM hospital handed over 36 unclaimed bodies to police and 17 were shifted to the anatomy lab. Police disposed of another 30 unclaimed bodies from Sion hospital and 39 from Cooper hospital. Police have disposed of three bodies from Nair hospital. “We have also divided our cold storage into two— the hospital morgue has been turned into Covid and the morgue under the post-mortem centre has been kept as noncovid. This has been done to curb any possible transmission,” said a forensic expert from the hospital. Similarly, Sion hospital has also divided their morgue into Covid and non-covid.

The Sion hospital which currently has over 250 Covid patients has preserved 16 cabins for Covid patients and 38 for non-covid patients. Cooper Hospital has 36 cabinets for Covid and 70 for noncovid. Nair Hospital has 32 boxes for Covid patients. But KEM hospital, which receives the most critically ill patients, has 27 cabinets in the morgue. On a daily basis, the hospital receives around eight bodies.

“As of now, we have enough space, but we are trying to extend the facility,” said a senior doctor from the hospital.

At Kasturba Hospital, the newly constructed morgue started functioning from Friday. Now, the hospital has a capacity to keep around 17 bodies.

CASE COUNT: 14,521