NRI kin return for woman’s final rites, find body ‘decomposed’ at morgue

Alleging that the hospital staff did not “placate or express apology” but instead “replied in a rude and dismissive manner” on being questioned about the state of the body of their relative, the angry residents allegedly got into a physical brawl with the staff and the doctor on duty. A relative of the deceased said, “We had kept the body of our relative in the E1 unit of the cold room of the hospital and when we arrived on Wednesday, that chamber had the body of another male. On enquiring, we were told that the body of our relative had been placed in B3… When it was shifted, the hospital did not inform us and were unwilling to explain how it was in a highly decomposed state…”

As officials of the Raopura police station rushed to the spot, doctors of the post-mortem department decided to go on a strike in protest of the alleged attack, forcing the SSG hospital to shift bodies for autopsy to the Gujarat Medical Education and Research Society (GMERS) Gotri medical college.

Medical Superintendent of SSG hospital, Dr Ranjan Aiyer said in a statement that a technical fault could have led to the “unfortunate” decomposition of the body, but the attack on doctors was “condemnable”. Dr Aiyer said, “The night before last, one unit of the mortuary malfunctioned. With temperatures soaring to 44–45 degrees, normal air-conditioning or cooling equipment of this kind can fail or overheat… as a result, that unit stopped functioning.”

Aiyer said that arrangements were then made to shift Vyas’ body to a neighboring unit that was operational. Aiyer said, “Regarding the relatives’ first allegation that the body was changed or why it was moved from one unit to another—this was done to ensure that the body does not deteriorate, since the unit in which it was originally kept had malfunctioned, and hence we shifted the body… We are aware of such possibilities; however, it is natural—any machine can malfunction, unfortunately…”

The superintendent condemned the attack on doctors and said that a Fact Finding Committee will be formed to inquire into the incident and ascertain if any negligence had occurred, Aiyer said, “As the Medical Superintendent and Dean, I strongly condemn the assault and the attack carried out by these individuals on an on-duty doctor… it is not acceptable and is not good for society. If there were any complaints or if anyone was at fault, we would have conducted a proper inquiry. But taking the law into one’s own hands—assaulting whoever is present, dragging them here in anger is not acceptable. A fact-finding committee will be constituted to look into the incident.”

A senior police official of Vadodara city told this newspaper that a formal complaint was awaited in the matter from the hospital or the family, in order to begin the probe.