Video Shows COVID-19 Infected Dead Bodies Lying Next To Patients In Mumbai Hospital, BMC Orders Probe

A day after a viral video showing dead bodies of COVID-19 victims kept in a ward alongside the patients triggered outrage, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has ordered an inquiry into the matter.

According to reports, a committee has been set up and asked to submit its report within 24 hours.

On Wednesday, May 6, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Nitesh Rane had tweeted a video showing bodies wrapped in black polythene lying unattended on the beds close to the patients seeking medical treatment.

The video was shot at Lokmanya Tilak General Hospital, also known as Sion hospital where in a ward of 10 patients, at least six COVID-19 dead bodies were lying close to the beds of patients.

"In Sion hospital..patients r sleeping next to dead bodies!!! This is the extreme..what kind of administration is this! Very very shameful!! @mybmc," tweeted the MLA.

"This is the condition of Mumbai's hospitals. Patients are sleeping close to dead bodies. This is extreme. What kind of administration it is," he added.

In another tweet, he said, "After the Sion hospital video more shocking info is coming from all the corners. Health staff and Mumbaikers r calling n sending info from all the sides on how the Maha Gov n BMC has completely failed! All I can say it's a MEDICAL EMERGENCY!!"

Congress leader Milind Deora also slammed the administration and questioned the authorities over protocols.

"Outraged to see corpses laid beside the sick at Sion Hospital. Why isn't @mybmc following @WHO-prescribed protocols when disposing of #COVIDー19 corpses? Public hospital staff are doing their best with limited resources at hand. Mumbai's administration needs to step up NOW!," He tweeted.

"I have never seen such a horrendous situation [in Mumbai] where patients are made to share beds beside bodies. This causes severe psychological trauma among patients," said BJP minister Kirit Somaiya, who has filed a complaint with the ICMR, reported Hindustan Times.

Sion Hospital dean Dr Pramod Ingale said that the hospital authorities are facing challenges while handing over the COVID-19 bodies to relatives. Due to the coronavirus situation and lack of awareness, the families are unwilling to take them.

"The video seems to be from Sion Hospital. The challenge with us is that relatives are not ready to take the bodies. Usually relatives are behind us to handover the body. In COVID-19 cases, they are not coming forward to collect the body. By the time we disinfect and wrap the body of a COVID-19 patient the relatives disappear. We can't dispose body on our own. We have to inform local police station and medical health officer about the death," the statement read.

Dr Ingale also highlighted the hospital limitations in dealing with bodies of COVID-19 patients. He pointed out that even the mortuary will run out of capacity if all the bodies are moved there.

"We have a capacity of 60 bodies in the mortuary out of which 15 are allotted for COVID-19 patients. But given the death rate, that is not enough," he stated.

"This will also affect our capacity to store non-COVID-19 bodies. We try that the body is handed over to relatives as soon as possible. As relatives don't turn up we have to ask police to find them. All these things lead to delay. We will improve on it in future," he said.

"We have started to shift them to the mortuary," Dr. Ingale stated.

Maharashtra has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country, close to 17,900. The Uddhav Thackeray government has issued guidelines that no bodies should be kept in the ward for more than half an hour.

Also Read: 15 Migrants Returning Home Crushed To Death By Train In Maharashtra's Aurangabad