By PTI
LATUR: Bodies of two COVID-19 patients were swapped at a government hospital at Latur in Maharashtra at the time of handing over to their families, local officials have said.
The incident took place at Vilasrao Deshmukh Government Medical and Sciences Institute on Thursday, they said.
The body of one of the victims was buried by the family members of another deceased, but it was later exhumed and given to the kin after the goof-up came to light.
Dhondiram Sadashiv Tondare (65) of Shelgaon, who was undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at the hospital, died on May 5.
However, his relatives were given the body of another victim.
Without realising the mistake, they performed the last rites and buried the body, the officials said.
Meanwhile, Abasaheb Sakharam Chavan (45), a resident of Hatola village in Ambajogai tehsil of Beed district had also passed away at the same hospital.
But when his family members reached the hospital to receive body, they were shocked to find that it was somebody else’s body.
Chavan’s family later found out that it was Tondare’s body.
They traced the whereabouts of Tondare’s family and reached Shelgaon village.
They explained to Tondare’s relatives what had happened and demanded that the body erroneously buried by them be handed over to them.
Accordingly, the body was exhumed using a JCB machine and handed over to Chavan’s relatives, they said.
Talking about the incident, Vilasrao Deshmukh Government Medical and Sciences Institute’s dean Dr Sudhir Deshmukh said that the kin of the relatives had received body from the staff by mistake and the family members have accepted their mistake.