The 21-year-old son of a Covid-19 victim from Mumbai's Borivali was allegedly forced by Shatabdi Hospital to put his mother's body inside a bag, without being provided any safety equipment. Following the incident, two staffers of the BMC-run hospital were suspended, pending enquiry, reported Mumbai Mirror.
50-year-old Pallavi Utekar, who worked as a domestic help, was admitted to the hospital on June 30 after she started showing Covid-19 symptoms. Following this, on July 2, her son received a call from the hospital asking him to reach immediately. Soon after, he was informed about his mother's death and was asked to wrap her body up in a bag. Moreover, he was denied a PPE kit even after asking for it, and had to enter the Covid-19 ward of the hospital without any safety equipment.
Recalling the incident, a traumatised Kunal said that he was shocked when they refused to provide him with a PPE. "I told them, without PPE how can I touch the dead body? They said the body is heavy and I had to help. She was my mother. I had to leave my fear aside and go inside the Covid ward without PPE. I put her in the bag properly. After some time, they again called me to help lift the body from the bed and put it on a stretcher," he said.
The only child of his parents, Kunal is presently in the third year of BCom at Borivali's Gokhale College. His 55-year-old father, Pandurang, had also tested coronavirus positive and is admitted at a different BMC facility.
Medical superintendent of Shatabdi hospital Dr Pramod Nagarkar ensured of an enquiry to be conducted on Saturday, July 4.
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