Moribund morgue staff take 3 hrs to release body

Moribund morgue staff take 3 hrs to release body
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

APRIL 2: It was a procedure that should have taken at the most 20 minutes. Yet 42-year-old Fayyaz S Pathan had to spend an agonising three hours on Sunday before doctors and other authorities at the K B Bhabha Hospital agreed to release the body of his father. Why? Because the staff of this civic hospital claimed ``they were too busy to look into the matter.''

The experience has left Pathan bitter. ``If educated people like me have to go through so much trouble, I wonder what happens to the illiterate ones. We could not do anything but wait. I felt totally helpless,'' says Pathan who is a member of the All India Freelance Journalists Association.

Narrating the traumatic ordeal he underwent Pathan says his father died of a pulmonary stroke late Friday evening at the Holy Family hospital, Bandra. He decided to move the body to the morgue of K B Bhabha hospital as he had to wait for the arrival of his brothers from abroad before the funeral could take place.

``My father wanted his last rites at the Thane burial grounds where his ancestors rest and we had decided to leave Bandra early in the morning on Sunday,'' explains Pathan. ``Anticipating delay on Friday when I had taken the body, I wanted to make an appeal in writing that formalities be cleared by 8 am on Sunday morning so that the body could be taken to Thane on time. We also wanted the burial over soon because of the heat. The workers in the morgue assured me that the body would be released in 15 minutes and there was no need for a written note.''

However when Pathan and some family members reached the morgue at 7.30 am on Sunday they were told they needed permission from the relevant doctors. We than went to the OPD department where no one bothered to attend to us. After pleading for an hour, at 9 am, I was told to go the first floor and talk to one Dr S Kulkarni. I rushed there and told her about my plight - that the family members and clergy were waiting for the body and that it needs to be taken to the grounds before noon.'' But the doctor did not bother and continued with her anti-rabies vaccination programme, he alleges. ``Her constant reply was `wait downstairs, I am busy now.'

``After waiting for so long I lost my temper and told her that I am a journalist. It was only then that matters were speeded up.'' The body was released at 10.45 am and it reached the Thane morgue at 1.30 pm.

Pathan says it was fortunate that the body had not begun oozing blood and watery discharge because of the delay.

``But the experience has left me wondering about the treatment meted to the hundreds of common people who go there daily,'' he says. ``Many present at the hospital said there was nothing new about my plight. They said these kinds of delays were common here,'' he alleges.

Deputy Medical Superintendent, V B Shukla (currently in charge of the hosptial as the Medical Superintendent is on leave) said he was not aware of the incident. Wwhen informed he said the matter will be investigated. ``The body should have been released in 20 minutes,'' he agreed. ``The Medical Officer (Adminsitration) is present in the hospital all the 24 hours and Pathan should have contacted him if he had problems. Moreover we have a Patients Grievance Cell,'' said Dr Shukla.

But who informs the patients/relatives of this facility? All that the hospital authorities did was to make Pathan run from one department to another. ``Yes I agree that was wrong. I will see to it that such type of incidents don't happen again,'' he added.