Indore: Kin take Covid-19 patient’s body in private ambulance, video goes viral

INDORE: A video showing relatives of a deceased Covid-19 patient collecting his remains from MY Hospital mortuary and loading it on a private ambulance on Friday led to a controversy over how bodies of patients dying with the infection are handled in Indore. The relatives alleged that they did not get any support from the hospital or local civic body for disposal of the body, which they were forced to search and pick up the body from MY Hospital mortuary.
The video showed relatives of deceased collecting the body and moving it on a stretcher to an ambulance for performing final rites at a local crematorium.The 67-year-old patient, a resident of Pardseshipura, was admitted to MRTB Hospital and died during treatment. A man claiming to be son of deceased, claimed in the video that he received no support from health officials for disposal of the body. "We were given the keys, asked to collect the body. The CMHO office gave us some phone numbers of individuals who could help, but no one was picking it up,"
The hospital authorities denied that it was under any compulsion to provide vehicle to the relatives to transport bodies of Covid-19 patients. MY Hospital superintendent Dr PS Thakur said, "There is no order that makes it compulsory to provide vehicle for transportation of body of Covid-19 positive person from hospital to cremation ground. However, those need it could ask for IMC's vehicle for dead body."
He said he would be issuing a show-cause notice to staff, who gave the mortuary keys to the relatives and asked them to collect body on their own. Dr Thakur’s notion was contrary to what chief medical and health officer Dr Pravin Jadia believed. "Only vehicles of Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) are allowed to transport body of COVID-19 patients from hospital to cremation ground," he said.
The CMHO rejected the idea that relatives can take the body in private ambulance, saying, "Ambulance is for patients not for bodies. It can't be done." While officials fought over the norms, the relatives carried out the final rites of the deceased at a local crematorium.
Ajit Kalyane, IMC’s nodal officer for mortuary van services, claimed that he came to know about the incident after the final rites were performed. He contacted the family and found that they have been dialling wrong numbers to get connected to the civic body officials.