Kurnool hospital mixes up bodies
In a case of gross negligence, the Kurnool Government General Hospital on Monday buried the body of a 66-year-old person, assuming it to be of a 36-year-old person who had succumbed to Coronavirus.
The goof-up came to light when relatives of A. Rambabu, a resident of Budhawarapeta, Kurnool, went to the mortuary on Tuesday morning to collect his body and to their utter shock found that it was of another person hailing from S. Nagappa Street of the same city.
Enraged by the incident, the relatives of Rambabu staged a dharna in front of the collector’s office demanding that the authorities exhume Rambabu’s body and hand it over to them to perform the last rites as per their family tradition.
The health authorities tried to convince the relatives that exhuming the body from the designated burial place of Covid patients would lead to further complications, but in vain.
Collector G. Veera Pandian, who has cut a sorry figure for the exponential growth of Covid-19 positive cases in the district and failure of the administration in containment operations, appointed a three-member committee to find a solution. Following this, the relatives called off their protest.
Inquiries revealed that a
36-year-old male was admitted to the hospital on May 9 with symptoms of
Covid-19. Rambabu, 66, had been undergoing treatment in the same hospital since May 7 for some other ailment.
Rambabu died on May 9 and the Covid patient on May 10.
As the samples of both persons were sent for the Covid test, the hospital authorities did not hand over the bodies to their relatives but kept them in the mortuary.
“The results came on Monday and the staff made a mistake and sent the body of the 60-year-old man, who tested negative, to the designated burial ground for Covid patients and it was buried following the protocol,” said Dr G. Narendranath Reddy, in-charge superintendent of KGGH.
All hell broke loose on Tuesday morning when Rambabu’s son Ramesh discovered the goof-up. “We lost our father. He tested negative for Covid yet they buried him assuming it to be a positive case. As the eldest son, it is my responsibility to perform the last rites of my dear father and my failure to do so will haunt me my lifetime,” he told Deccan Chronicle, his voice choked with emotion.
The staff at the mortuary fled when the angry relatives started questioning them.
It was found that the staff did not maintain any serial order and even entered Rambabu’s name wrongly in the death report as well as the register as Kama Babu. The authorities rectified the name after the relatives complained. “Such is the unprofessional and indifferent attitude of the staff,” lamented Ramesh.
Meanwhile, the collector constituted the committee with Kurnool Medical College Principal Dr Chandrasekhar, District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) Dr Rama Giddaiah, and the KGGH Superintendent.
Dr Reddy said the body of the Covid patient was kept in the mortuary and would be buried at the Lakshmipuram Covid burial ground after duly informing his relatives of the protocols. The DMHO said the relatives of the Covid patient have been quarantined.