BMC to probe case of 62-year-old who couldn’t be traced for 48 hrs

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday initiated an enquiry into the incident involving a 62-year-old suspected Covid patient, whose family could not locate the woman for around 48 hours after she was admitted to the Covid care facility in Bandrakurla Complex (BKC) last week and later moved to Sion Hospital, where she died.

The enquiry will be headed by Prashant Narnaware, one of the five IAS officers appointed by the civic body to keep a check on bed management at private hospitals. Narnaware said preliminary information is being collected about the entire case.

The patient, Gyanti Devi, was first admitted at the BKC facility at 5am on June 2 with breathing issues and lower body pain. The same afternoon, as many as 200 patients were moved from the BKC centre to the Covid care facility at NSCI Exhibition Centre in Worli and Sion Hospital due to the threat of Cyclone Nisarga. Gyanti Devi was taken to Sion Hospital, where she succumbed on June 3.

Her grandson, Sandeep Sharma, had to run from pillar to post for 48 hours to locate Gyanti Devi. The family claim they did not receive any intimation from the BKC facility about transferring Gyanti Devi even though they had submitted their contact details. Sharma and his family then did the rounds of Worli NSCI and Sion Hospital for two days, but could not find Gyanti Devi at both places.

Finally, on the evening of June 4, while enquiring with the Sion Hospital staff, the family was told that there was an unclaimed body of a woman who had died on June 3. “We searched in all wards at Sion Hospital and went to the enquiry counter multiple times. The staff then suspected that she could have died and they contacted the Sion crematorium. They then found out that an unclaimed body had been sent to the cremation. It was my grandmother,” said Sharma.

After Sharma reach the crematorium, the body was handed over to him, but the family still does not know if Gyanti Devi was Covid-19. Her body was handed over without conducting a Covid test although her death certificate states she died of type-two respiratory failure, lower respiratory tract infection, hypertension and chronic kidney disease.

Respiratory failure with comorbidities is one of the causes of deaths in Covid-19 patients.

HT reported about the case on Wednesday.

“I will be looking into this, too, whether a test was conducted or not. We will do a thorough investigation. We are gathering details from the staff that was present on the day the patient was transferred at Sion,” Narnaware said.

Civic chief Iqbal Chahal said the matter is being “examined”.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders along with family members of Gyanti Devi have lodged a complaint at the BKC police station against the civic body, alleging criminal negligence by Sion Hospital and the BKC facility.