Bikaner hospital accused of mishandling corpse of COVID-19 patient

Bikaner hospital was accused of mishandling corpse of COVID-19 patient. According to guidelines, the crematorium and burial ground staff should be sensitised that novel coronavirus does not pose additional risk and that they should practice standard precautions of hand hygiene, use of masks and gloves.

Bikaner:The Prince Bijay Singh Memorial Hospital (PBM) in Rajasthan's Bikaner handed over the dead body of a coronavirus positive woman, who died while undergoing treatment at the hospital, without following proper guidelines and standard precautions.

Even after a guideline was issued by the government on how to handle the dead body of a coronavirus positive person, the hospital authorities reportedly neglected it.

Guidelines for dead body management towards precautions, infection prevention and control measures, handling of body and environmental disinfection was issued by the Health Ministry over a month ago.

After the dead body was handed over to the family members they kept the infected body at their home for paying last respects. Later they cremated the dead body.

According to guidelines, the crematorium and burial ground staff should be sensitised that novel coronavirus does not pose additional risk and that they should practice standard precautions of hand hygiene, use of masks and gloves.

Soon after the incident came to light, around 22 family members of the deceased were traced and put under isolation.

Read:COVID-19 LIVE: Total cases reach 3,374 in India, with 77 deaths

"We handed her body to the family, wrapped in a plastic bag, as mentioned in the government’s protocol," said Dr. PK Berwal, Superintendent of PBM Hospital, exclusively to ETV Bharat.

"The hospital management should have followed the protocol and waited for the test result of the deceased, before handing corpse to the family," he admitted.

Hospitals are advised to place the dead body in a leak-proof plastic body bag. The exterior of the body bag can be decontaminated with 1 per cent hypochlorite. The body bag can be wrapped with a mortuary sheet or sheet provided by the family members.

According to reports, religious rituals such as reading from religious scripts, sprinkling holy water and any other last rites that does not require touching of the body can be allowed, adding that bathing, kissing, hugging of the body should not be allowed and the burial staff and family members should perform hand hygiene after cremation or burial.

The guidelines outlined that the ash does not pose any risk and can be collected to perform the last rites.