Hyderabad hospital mixes up Covid-19 victim’s body with another

The Hyderabad hospital came to light when relatives of a person who died on Wednesday found that his body was missing.

In a major mix-up, authorities at state-run Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad handed over the body of a man who died of Covid-19 to another family, which performed the last rites.

A medical team wheels out the body of a person who died of Covid-19 during a handover to family members outside the mortuary, at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) hospital in New Delhi on Thursday.(Raj K Raj/HT File Photo)

The incident came to light on Thursday after relatives of a 37-year-old man, who had died at the hospital on Wednesday, found that his body was missing.

The frantic search involving police led to the finding.

The 37-year-old died in the early hours of Wednesday. “The hospital staff called us to identify the body but it was not there. We kept searching all over the hospital with the help of police and today, we came to know that the body was handed over to another family and they performed the last rites,” a relative of the deceased told IANS.

The family of the other deceased was called back to the hospital on Thursday and it was found that the body of their relative was still lying in the mortuary. After taking the consent of the relatives of the 37-year-old man, the body was handed over to them.

“The entire incident is very shocking for us. We are planning to lodge a complaint against the hospital administration,” the relative said.