VELLORE: In a possible case of negligence at a Vellore hospital, a Covid-infected elderly man’s dead body was removed only after six hours from the Covid ward on Thursday. This reportedly led to the other Covid-19 patients stage a boycott by refusing to take their breakfast.
The 67-year-old man, a resident of Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) in Walajah in Ranipet district, died of the coronavirus at the Covid ward in Government Pentland Hospital, in the early hours of Thursday.
About 70 patients were admitted to the ward and the delay in removing his body had caused health concerns among them, sources said. When asked about the reason for delay, the hospital’s chief medical officer (CMO), Dr Anitha said, “Since the deceased was not from Vellore, we had to coordinate with the officials from the native district of the person, which is Ranipet in this case.
We had to wait till the officials concerned located a place for burial/cremation in the village of the deceased.” Had it been a local death, we would have cleared the body without any delay, said the CMO. The death occurred at 2.25 am and the body was removed from the Covid ward only at around 8.20 am, said the CMO. After holding talks, the Covid-19 patients accepted the breakfast.