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Cremation of Muslim and almost burial of Hindu- covid bodies swap at AIIMS

Amid already dire situations in the country, mistakes from the hospital department have been making the lives of covid-19 patients’ families only worse. In an appalling incident in the national capital, a deceased Muslim covid-19 patient’s body was swapped with that of a Hindu woman. Moreover, till the time the Muslim family realized this, their clan member had already been cremated. This happened at Delhi’s AIIMS Trauma Centre morgue when Anjum B’s body was mixed with Kusum Lata’s.

Shareef Khan, brother of the deceased Anjum B, said that he had brought his sister to AIIMS on July 4th at around 8-9 pm. He claims that within 2hours of her admission, the hospital declared her to be covid-19 positive which Khan’s family believed. Anjum was later transferred to a quarantine center at 3 am. Shareef alleges that they were denied permission to meet his sister by the hospital authorities, saying that they will update Anjum’s health condition over the phone.

The next day when Khan called the hospital, he was told that his sister’s condition had improved. However, he received a phone call from the hospital at 2 am that night informing him of Anjum’s death.

The already miserable family had to wait for 12 long hours to claim the body. According to Shareef, he requested the staff to allow him to see his sister’s face one last time so that he could take a picture of her to show it to the rest of her family members for the final rites. Nevertheless, he wasn’t permitted to do so.

Minutes before burying the body that they received in the name of Anjum B, Shareef tried looking at his sister’s face wearing the PPE kit. To his utter shock and disbelief, the body did not belong to his sister but rather to a Hindu woman named Kusum Lata.

When this matter was brought to the notice of the hospital authority, they called it a “mix-up of bodies” and instead tried to intimidate Khan when he raised an alarm.

This infuriated Khan’s family and they informed the police. At 4pm, the hospital then concluded saying that the actual body of Anjum had already been cremated according to the Hindu customs by Kusum Lata’s family. When they asked for the contact details of Kusum’s family, no hospital staff member was willing to provide him the same.

Furthermore, Shareef said that upon reaching the Safdarjung police station, their complaint was registered after hours.

According to ThePrint, when they requested for a comment, there was no response from the police or AIIMS hospital regarding this matter.

However, reports revealed that an enquiry has been set up by the police in this case and one member from the mortuary has been terminated while another has got suspended.

With the increasing number of cases in the national capital, hospitals have got overburdened and such grave mistakes have been happening.

This was a second such incident, with the first taking place last month in Delhi’s Maulana Azad Medical College mortuary.