Kerala hospital staff give wrong dead body to relatives; probe ordered

When the hospital staff in Kerala's Kollam handed over the wrong dead body, the relatives concerned simply accepted it as they could not identify it because the deceased old man was treated for long on ventilator. But they realised only after taking the body home for last rites that a wrong body was given to them. A departmental enquiry has been ordered into the incident.

Kollam (Kerala) : Gross negligence of the staff surfaced at a hospital in Kerala's Kollam where they replaced an old man's dead body with another body and handed it over to his relatives. The incident took place on Saturday morning at Kollam's Kadakkal Taluk Hospital. Instead of the body of old man Vamadeva (68), who was a native of Kadakkal Vachikonam, the hospital staff handed over the body of another deceased person to his relatives.

Later, it was found that the body of one Rajendran Neelakandan was given to the relatives of the old man. When the body was brought home for last rites, Vamadeva's relatives realised that the mortal remains were not those of the old man. They came to know about the change of body. Then they immediately took the dead body to the hospital and informed the staff there.

Then, they checked the dead bodies and then handed over the correct body to the old man's relatives, who too cross checked it this time. They returned home with the correct body and performed the funeral rites.

Upon enquiries, it was revealed that the hospital staff initially released the wrong body after duly showing it to the relatives. But the problem was that the relatives could not correctly identify the body as the old man was being treated on the ventilator for a long time and his body underwent many changes. However, on coming to know about the misplacement of dead bodies, the State health department has started a detailed investigation into the incident.