The Gandhi Hospital mortuary where bodies brought for post mortem are decaying due to absence of adequate cold storage facility.
| Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal
Dead bodies brought to the mortuary of the Gandhi Hospital, Secunderabad are rotting due to malfunctioning of the cold storage boxes. Half of the cold storage units are not functioning, resulting in quicker than usual decomposition of bodies, according to a doctor.
Out of the approximately 60 cold storage boxes available in the hospital’s mortuary, only 25 are operational, leaving a substantial number out of order. As a consequence, there is insufficient space to store the deceased with dignity, leading to the bodies decaying within the facility. Bodies of accident victims, victims of suspicious death and unidentified bodies are brought to the Gandhi Hospital for post-mortem.
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The normally putrid smell near the mortuary is now an unbearable stench for the doctors, attenders, hospital staff and police personnel.
Gandhi Hospital, a prominent tertiary care institution in the country, receives between 15 to 20 dead bodies daily. While timely post-mortem procedures are conducted when the deceased’s family or friends claim the bodies, the hospital grapples with a challenging scenario when dealing with unclaimed bodies. In such instances, the hospital is obliged to wait for 72 hours for someone to step forward and claim the deceased. However, under the current circumstances, when doctors attempt to perform post-mortems after 72 hours, they often discover that the bodies have already decomposed, making their job difficult and intensifying the nasty odour.
Srinivas Goud, a relative of a deceased patient, shared his experience when he arrived at the mortuary to attend to his deceased relative. He revealed, “At 7 in the evening, we were sent a photo of my relative’s deceased body, who lost his life in a road accident. I arrived here the following day at 1.30 p.m. in the afternoon. However, when I entered the mortuary to identify the body, I couldn’t recognise it due to decomposition. I had to rely on the clothing to make a positive identification.”
Additionally, it was also observed that there are 16 cold storage boxes outside the rear entrance of the mortuary which are lying unused. When enquired, a doctor shared that these boxes were donated to the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic but two years have passed and they have not yet been installed. “At this point, we don’t even know if they will work,” the doctor said.
