Body lies unattended for 20 hrs in Mumbai

Mumbai: The bodies of two suspected COVID-19 patients were left unattended for several hours, one of them for nearly 20 hours, in the isolation ward of a civic-run hospital in Andheri, where other patients were present, sources said on Friday. According to the sources, the hospital staff was not ready to wrap the bodies due to the fear of getting infected. The hospital administration finally handed over the bodies to their relatives on Thursday around 4 pm, they said. The incident took place at the Dr R N Cooper Municipal General Hospital. "The hospital staff was not ready to wrap the bodies. One of the bodies kept lying unattended in the isolation ward for nearly 20 hours, while the other one for about 10 hours. Several other patients were present in the ward," the sources said.

Talking to PTI, the hospital administration claimed that the delay was mainly because the other staffers were not ready to help the attendant in wrapping the bodies as they were suspected COVID-19 patients.

"The bodies of COVID-19 patients need to be wrapped properly, which a single person cannot do without the help of others. But the other staffers were not ready to help the attendant fearing that they might also contract the infection," Dr Pinakin Gujjar, dean of the hospital, said. He clarified that there was no shortage of safety gear or material for wrapping the bodies. The city has so far recorded 4,232 coronavirus positive cases. Till now, 168 patients have died due to the infection in the city.