Covid: Mohali hospital goofs up, hands over wrong body to family

Tribune News Service

Mohali, April 22

In a bizarre incident, a private hospital here handed over a wrong body to a family whose patient had died due to Covid-19.

The incident came to light after the family members of the deceased, Kulwant Rai Aggarwal, reached Shalby Hospital in Phase 9 to receive the body. At the mortuary, the family members insisted on seeing the face of the body. They were left shocked on finding that the body was of someone else.

The family members raised the alarm following which the hospital authorities admitted their mistake and revealed that Aggarwal’s body had been taken by a family from Balongi.

Inquiry into the case

The Mohali district administration has ordered an inquiry into the case. In a press release, the district administration stated that a serious view of the case had been taken. The hospital admitted to their fault and it was done due to excessive rush of Covid-19 patients. There was a lot of pressure on health institutions. However, hospitals needed to be more vigilant so that such mistakes do not occur again and hurt the feelings of people, stated the release.

Rajesh Garg, nephew of the deceased, said, “When we complained to the hospital authorities, they expressed their helplessness. We then clicked the pictures of the body shown to us and rushed to the cremation ground where the Balongi family had taken the body. We showed them the pictures and they immediately recognised it. We then performed the last rites even as my uncle’s body had already been consigned to the flames.”

Garg said the other family would now visit the hospital tomorrow to take the body of their relative.

The district administration has ordered an inquiry into the case.

Garg, meanwhile, said his uncle lived in Rourkela and had come to Panipat to see his mother.

“He was admitted to a hospital there after contracting the virus. However, the facilities were not up to the mark at the Panipat hospital and we brought him here,” Garg said.

The family has lodged a complaint against Shalby Hospital at the Phase 8 police station.

Abhinav Srivastava, chief administrative officer, Shalby Hospital, said two persons died due to Covid on the same day and the bodies were kept in the mortuary. Srivastava said one of the families visited the hospital today, identified the body and took it for cremation. But when the other family came to get their body, they informed that it was not their patient.

The district administration, in a press release, stated that a serious view of the case had been taken. The hospital admitted to their fault and it was done due to excessive rush of Covid-19 patients. There was a lot of pressure on health institutions due to the surge in Covid cases. However, hospitals needed to be more vigilant so that such mistakes do not occur again and hurt the feelings of people, it added.