Shame! Osmania lets bodies pile up
The shocking story of unclaimed bodies piling up in the mortuary at Osmania General Hospital, exposed in this newspaper on May 7, has not led to any improvement in the situation. The old autopsy theatre was filled with 34 unclaimed bodies on Saturday as the GHMC, that collects unclaimed bodies and performs the last rites, has not removed them since May 7.
Unidentified or unclaimed bodies have to be disposed of if no one claims them within 72 hours. Nearly 40 bodies were taken away for cremation on May 7. The GHMC had blamed inter-department shift of responsibilities for the delay and had said the bodies would be collected every alternate day.
This is clearly not the case. Bodies are lying in the morgue since May 4. The only change is that the corpses have been wrapped in bed sheets and kept on old stretchers in the old autopsy theatre. Enough stretchers are not available so four bodies have been placed on tables.
The mixing of blood, tissues and abdominal fluids in the drainage leads to health hazards with the proliferation of harmful bacteria and viruses.
These fluids mix in the drainage and create a bad smell. It also allows a lot of decomposing worms and other micor-organisms to flourish in the drainage.
A senior doctor on condition of anonymity explained, “People who live along these drainage lines have to ensure that their drinking water pipelines are maintained properly. Else, it can lead to severe contamination. It can lead to different kinds of skin infections and as there are various micro-organisms, it allows the bad bacteria to survive in different forms.”
A major worry is that most of these drains mix into the Musi river. Environmentalists say it makes the soil around the riverbed full of toxic waste.
Madhu Choudhary, an environmental engineer, explained, “The soil around the lakebed and the riverside is not fertile any longer as it has a lot of sewage outlets opening to it.
“Most of them are filled with toxic waste. Hence if there are vegetables and other small crops being cultivated, there are chances of them being contaminated.”