In a shocking incident, the corpse of a 27-year-old Coronavirus patient was recovered from the toilet at TB hospital in Sewri, Mumbai.
As per reports, the patient has been identified as one Suryabhan Yadav. He had come to the TB hospital on September 30, after being referred by a doctor in Goregaon. Yadav was kept in the Coronavirus ward on the first floor of the hospital. However, he went missing from the ward on October 4. Besides Coronavirus infection, Yadav was also suffering from tuberculosis.
His was discovered after 14 days from the toilet block, even though they were being used regularly by other patients. When the corpse was found, it had decomposed beyond recognition. Reportedly, the hospital authorities could not initially ascertain the gender of the person. On cross-checking the records, it has found that Yadav had been missing for 14 days. As per the hospital management, no staff member or patient complained of any stinking smell until October 18.
Patient died of natural causes, claims post-mortem
Following the complaint of smell, a ward boy found on 18th October that a locked cubicle in the toilet was stinking badly. On peeing into the cubicle from atop the adjacent one, he found the decomposed body of the patient. The hospital authorities sent the body for post-mortem at KEM hospital and subsequently informed the police. The TB hospital is of the view that Yadav collapsed in the toilet due to breathlessness. As per head of the forensic department of KEM hospital, Dr Harish Pathak, the patient died of ‘natural causes’.
BMC directs inquiry, police investigation commences
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has directed for an inquiry into the matter and issued notice to over 40 hospital staff members, who were working in the particular ward. Meanwhile, senior police inspector (RAK Marg police station) Sunil Sohoni informed, “We will call hospital staffers for questioning to understand how this happened. We initiated an investigation to determine if there is any foul play.” It was also reported that the housekeeping staff refrained from entering the Coronavirus ward or cleaning the bathrooms.
Common for TB patients to go missing, claims Superintendent
While speaking on the development, Superintendent Dr Lalitkumar Anande said that it was common for tuberculosis patients to escape. “We had filed a missing report then. But it is common for TB patients to go absconding from the hospital,” he claimed. “The toilets are cleaned thrice in a day. Sometimes it is occupied by patients so the cleaner goes away. But patients use those toilets regularly and should have smelt the body. We have issued notices to all staffers on duty in the ward,” Anande further informed.
Coronavirus positive woman found dead inside the toilet
Earlier, an 82-year-old Coronavirus positive patient, who was missing for one week from a government hospital in Jalgaon in Maharashtra, was found dead inside a toilet in the hospital. According to the reports, the elderly woman had tested positive for coronavirus on May 27 and was under treatment since then at Jalgaon Civil Hospital. Later, the octogenarian went missing on June 2. The relatives and authorities began to search for the woman, however, she was not found.
According to Akbar Patel, Senior Inspector at the Zillapeth police station, they found some foul smell emanating from one of the toilets in the hospital. The police found the woman’s body in the hospital toilet eight days after she went missing. ‘We have informed the family accordingly’, SI Patel said. The worried family, in a video message, has urged the Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to order a probe into the incident and punish those found negligent or guilty.
