Mumbai: In a glaring example of official apathy, the bodies of two suspected COVID-19 patients were left unattended for several hours in a civic-run hospital in Andheri locality. Sources said Friday that one of the bodies remained for more than 20 hours in the isolation ward of the hospital. There were other patients in the ward.
According to the sources, the hospital staff was not ready to wrap the bodies due to the fear of getting infected. However, the hospital administration finally handed over the bodies to their relatives Thursday around 4.00pm, the sources said.
The incident took place at the Dr RN 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.
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 coronavirus 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.
This city has so far recorded 4,232 coronavirus positive cases. Till now, 168 patients have died due to the infection in the city.
PTI