Doctors at one of Central Gujarat’s busiest civil hospitals withdrew all non-emergency services on Thursday (April 30) after staff at the hospital’s post mortem department were allegedly assaulted by relatives of a woman whose body had been found to have decomposed in the hospital’s morgue.
The assault on the staff of Sir Sayajirao General Hospital in Vadodara, during which a woman resident doctor was allegedly dragged around, abused, and humiliated, took place on Wednesday (April 29).
The relatives of the deceased woman, Ranjan Vyas, were allegedly handed over a severely decomposed body when they arrived from the United States to claim it two days after the death had occurred.
On Thursday, doctors at the hospital were protesting to demand immediate stepping-up of security and accountability. They were sitting on dharna outside the office of the Medical Superintendent Dr R G Aiyer, demanding action against the perpetrators of the attack the previous day.
While emergency services and OPD operations remain functional, routine patient care at the hospital has been badly hit. With resident doctors away from work, medical professors have stepped in to manage patient care, officials of SSG Hospital said.
Work at the post mortem department of the hospital, which was suspended after the assault on doctors on Wednesday, continued to be suspended on Thursday. Several bodies were being shifted to the GMERS Gotri Medical College about 8 km away for autopsy.
The chaos at the hospital began around 8.30 am on Wednesday, hospital officials said. Ranjan Vyas had died on Monday (April 27), and the family had asked for the body to be preserved at SSG’s cold room until her son and his family arrived in Vadodara from the US.
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According to the relatives, when they arrived at the hospital, they were shocked to find that it had decomposed badly. As shock gave way to anger, the relatives allegedly attacked doctors and staff on duty, alleging that Vyas’s body had been “shifted” without informing the family, and that it had decomposed due to negligence.
The hospital staff did not try to “placate [them] or express [an] apology”, the relatives alleged. Instead, they “replied in a rude and dismissive manner” to questions about the state of the body, they said.
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. But when we arrived on Wednesday, we found that the chamber had the body of a male. On enquiring, we were told that the body of our relative had been placed in B3… The hospital did not inform us when it was shifted, and they were unwilling to explain how it was in a highly decomposed state.”
Medical Superintendent Dr Aiyer said in a statement that a technical fault could have led to the “unfortunate” decomposition of the body. However, the attack on the doctors was “condemnable”, he said.
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“The night before last (Monday night), one unit of the mortuary malfunctioned. With temperatures soaring to 44-45 degrees [Celsius], normal air-conditioning or cooling equipment of this kind can fail or overheat… as a result, that unit stopped functioning,” the statement said.
According to Dr Aiyer, arrangements were made to shift Vyas’s body to a neighbouring unit that was operational. “…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…,” he said.
On Thursday, doctors and staff at SSG gave their version of the events of the previous day when Vyas’s relatives had allegedly attacked them.
Resident doctor Shyam Vaya told The Indian Express: “When I went for my duty at around 8.30 am, a group of relatives had attacked the attendant of the cold room. Before I could understand the situation, they started abusing my female junior doctor. Somehow, I calmed them down and tried to understand the situation…
“I told them that the cold storage, the hospital management and the Department of Forensic Medicine has no responsibility. Despite this, they were not ready to stop… They dragged the female doctor by the hand to the Medico-Legal Officers’ chamber, abusing her in public and threatened her with dire consequences if she moved an inch from where they had pinned her…”
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Dr Vaya alleged that despite calling for help and additional security, none of the hospital guards turned up.
“From the moment the incident began, I had been calling for additional guards to be deployed there. Despite this, for almost 45 minutes, no guards arrived. Before the security guards could reach, I had called the Raopura police station. The police arrived before the security guards did. It was the police who rescued us and saved us from being beaten…,” he said.
The incident was a “blemish” on the reputation of Gujarat as a “safe state” for doctors, Dr Vaya said. “We are resident doctors. We have come from all corners of India. My colleague is from Andhra Pradesh, and my junior, who was subjected to such serious abuse, is from Bihar. Did their parents send them to Gujarat to be beaten by people there? Gujarat is considered one of the safest states in India; yet, in a major institute in Central Gujarat, such an incident happens in broad daylight…,” he said.
The woman doctor, who is pursuing her MD from Baroda Medical College, said that the incident had shaken her, especially since male relatives of the deceased had attacked and dragged her through the campus.
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“A very senior staff member of the cold room was assaulted. When I arrived there, about 30 to 40 men, without even giving a chance to explain or express solidarity, began abusing me and aggressively trying to overpower me,” she said.
“I kept telling them that it was an MLO-related issue (a reference to a medico-legal officer, who is responsible for examining cases where deaths have not taken place in the natural course) and that I would take them there, but they refused to listen. They dragged me by my hand to the MLO office. When we reached there, as soon as my consultant arrived, they turned on him as well, and tore his shirt,” she said.
The woman doctor added: “There was only one security guard, what could he even do? Nearly two hours passed and no one came, no one at all. I was the only woman there, handling everything on my own. No security personnel came… If things continue like this, how will work go on?… As a woman, I do not feel safe at all. I have come here from another state to pursue my studies, but I do not feel safe here — especially being the only woman present…”
Adding that she would urge the hospital to increase security near the post mortem department, the doctor said, “We need security. There are blind spots where there are no cameras, and so many relatives gather at once even on a regular basis. How can I handle so many people alone? They should make rules to restrict large numbers of relatives… Many of them do not even know what the incident is… they just arrive in big groups to create chaos…”
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The resident doctors have filed a police complaint over the assault and are pressing for action. They are demanding enhanced security measures, including installation of CCTV cameras across the campus, deployment of permanent security personnel, and improved lighting in poorly lit areas.
The Vadodara District Collector, the Joint Commissioner of Police of Vadodara City and the SSG Medical Superintendent have initiated talks with the protesting doctors to resolve the crisis.
