Bhubaneswar: A major controversy has been created after a private hospital authority and police have handed over a dead body to a wrong family. The incident came to limelight after four days.
An explosion took place at the High-Tech Medical College and Hospital here during AC gas filling on December 29 last. In the incident four persons were critically injured, of which two people were succumbed to injuries on December 30 and January 3.
Claiming Dilip Samantaray, an AC mechanic, died two days after the explosion, the authorities had handed over the body to his family members and his last rites were completed.
Ironically, unable to bear the death of Dilip, his wife Somyashree allegedly committed suicide on last Monday by hanging herself at her paternal house in Nuagoan village in Khurda district.
After the occurrence of this tragic incident, the hospital authorities made a ‘U’ turn today and claimed that Dilip Samantaray is alive and under treatment at the healthcare facility. This statement from the hospital authority has not only shocked the two families, but also the entire State as due to such avoidable confusion, an innocent lady committed suicide.
“All the four persons who were initially injured in the compressor blast are not the employees of the hospital. They are the staff of an outsourcing agency. A staff of that outsourcing agency had identified the injured after the blast and accordingly, they were admitted to the hospital,” CEO of Hi-Tech Hospital, Smita Padhi told reporters here.
“One of the patients died on December 30. We were told that he was Dilip Samantray. We informed the police and the family of the deceased identified the body and signed the inquest. Following due procedure, the body was handed over to the family members of Dilip,” she said.
Later, on January 3, another person, Sritam Sahu, died and his body was handed over to his family members.
Out of the four, two are currently under treatment. One has been identified as Simanchal, and the other person, who claimed to be Jyoti Ranjan Mallik.
“Jyoti was on a ventilator. But after he came out of the ventilator, he claimed to be Dilip Samantray. We are confused about who is who. Our psychologist examined him and found that he is Dilip,” she said.
Psychologist Amrit Pattajoshi who conducted the psychometric evaluation of the patient said, “When we called Dilip’s family to the hospital who were already mourning his death, the patient answered all the questions right. He even knows the answers which Jyoti can’t possibly know.”
Now everyone is questioning how such a mismanagement of the dead body occurred in the presence of police.