BHUBANESWAR: The shocking case of identity goof-up at Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital in the city has not only exposed the shoddy identification procedure adopted by the hospital authorities and police, but also brought to fore loopholes in the system while dealing with medico-legal cases.
While three of the four technicians injured in the blast have died, the wife of Dilip Samantray, who was first declared dead and then found alive only to succumb within a day, has died by suicide, thanks to the identity mix up in the hospital records. The whole episode has raised several questions on the shoddy identification procedure of the hospital that tried to play down the blast from day one terming it as a freak incident.
Hospital CEO Dr Smita Padhi said, the injured persons were initially identified by an employee of the third party agency, which had supplied them ACs. Their family members were in constant touch with the patients when they were admitted to the ICU. After death, the family members of Dilip had signed the inquest report and received the body. There was no confusion over identification as his relatives cremated the body in their native place in the presence of other villagers, she said.
Dilip’s relatives, however, blamed the hospital authorities. His mother Ahalya claimed the family had little scope to identify the body as it was fully covered with the face disfigured due to burn injuries and the hospital had already announced him dead. They were also not allowed to uncover the body inside the hospital.
But the question is, if a hospital can rely on a third party while identifying a person with critical thermal injuries and declaring him dead. Forensic science experts said the hospital did not follow the protocol of identifying charred persons. As per protocol, the hospital should have allowed his family members to identify when the technician was under treatment as the earlier identification was done by a third party. Had it followed the SOP properly, at least two lives could have been saved, they said.
Medical superintendent of AIIMS-Bhubaneswar Dr DK Parida said hospitals must learn from the Bahanaga train tragedy in which 28 bodies remained unidentified due to possible procedural loopholes at the temporary mortuary while handing over corpses before those were brought to AIIMS.
“A third party can identify a person at the time of hospital admission. But hospitals and police, in case of medico-legal cases, must ensure the correct identity while declaring someone dead or handing over the bodies. A DNA profiling should be made mandatory for disfigured bodies in case of burn injury or fatal accidents to prevent such mix-up identity issues further,” he suggested.