Tiruvallur GH mess: TN, Bihar men's bodies swapped
The deceased Rajendran (60), an agricultural labourer from Pujireddypalli village near Tiruttani, had been suffering chronic stomach pain for years
Representative Image
CHENNAI: Tension erupted at the Tiruvallur Government Medical College Hospital on Wednesday when the relatives of a deceased elderly man staged a protest and laid siege to the mortuary after his body was mistakenly sent away to Bihar and instead another man’s body was handed over to them.
The deceased Rajendran (60), an agricultural labourer from Pujireddypalli village near Tiruttani, had been suffering chronic stomach pain for years, Rajendran reportedly attempted suicide two days ago, when the pain became unbearable. He was initially admitted at Tiruttani Government Headquarters Hospital and later shifted to Tiruvallur GMCH where he succumbed while under treatment.
After obtaining necessary clearance from Tiruttani police station for a postmortem, Rajendran’s relatives arrived at the Tiruvallur hospital mortuary to claim his body.
To their shock, they were presented with the body of a different individual – a 55-year-old man from Bihar. Making matters worse, the mortuary staff allegedly told the distraught relatives to take the body of the younger man, identified as Manoj Manchi (55) from Nalanda, Bihar.
The relatives protested and demanded Rajendran’s body. A review of the CCTV footage reportedly confirmed the hospital administration’s claim that Rajendran’s body had been sent to Bihar. An investigation revealed that Manchi arrived in Chennai on May 30/31 and reached a road construction site near Vengal on June 2.
He was ill and collapsed on the same day at 10am and was rushed to Tiruvallur GH, where he died. A relative from Bihar arrived, claimed Manoj’s body after autopsy, and sent it to Bihar in a private ambulance.
Police from Tiruvallur Town station arrived to talk with Rajendran’s protesting relatives. The hospital administration stated that Rajendran’s body, which was enroute to Bihar, had been recalled once the mix-up was realised and was on its way back to TN. Rajendran’s relatives were asked to return on Thursday to receive the body, defusing the protest.
In another case of accidental body swap that took place in 2008, the Chennai GH handed over an unknown man’s body to the wife of a man who was killed in an accident. The woman later came to know that her husband’s body was received by another family and they cremated him. The Madras High Court subsequently directed the state government to compensate her.