E-Paper
Ludhiana civil hospital implements new procedure to avoid body swaps
Under the new procedure implemented by Ludhiana civil hospital to avoid body swaps, photographs of two family members and the investigating officer are being clicked while handing over the dead body from the mortuary
The civil hospital has implemented a new procedure of double-checking before handing over a dead body to bereaved family members following an incident of body swap earlier this month.
On January 4, body of one Ayush Sood of Kartar Nagar, Salem Tabri went missing from the civil hospital. Sood passed away on January 1 due to Hepatitis C and his body was kept at the mortuary on January 3 as his sisters were coming from Canada for his last rites.
When Ayush’s family went to collect his body from the hospital on January 4, it was found that it had been handed over to the family of one Maneesh Sharma, 34, who had died of a heart attack on January 3.
Under the new procedure, photographs of two family members and the investigating officer are being clicked while handing over the dead body from the mortuary.
To avoid any incident of body swap in future, photograph of two family members is being clicked while handing over a dead body, said Dr. Charan Kamal, nodal officer mortuary and a forensic expert.
“The mortuary has updated its procedures, requiring all dead bodies to have proper identification tags. Family members are encouraged to visit once in 24 hours after the body has been deposited,” Kamal said.
After the recent incident of the body swap, responsibility of class IV employees working in the mortuary has already been fixed for not tagging a dead body at the time of receiving. A final report has also been submitted to the civil surgeon in the same case.
Both class-IV employees were shifted from the mortuary by the hospital administration after the incident.
