BS RAWAT
At Banaras Hindu University (BHU) hospital -- a nodal hospitals for Covid-19 cases in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh -- two families who lost their loved one to Covid-19 were given the wrong body. Apparently, the bodies were mistakenly exchanged by the mortuary staff.

Additional Chief Medical Officer (ACMO), Dr Jung Bahadur Singh, had died of Covid-19 on August 11 night. His body was handed over in a body bag to the family the next day.

At Harishchandra Ghat, the family had started the cremation rituals. Just when the pyre had been lit, the family of a Covid-19 patient from Ghazipur, who had also died the same day, reached there and apprised the doctor’s family of the mix-up.

The family was shocked to find that the body was not of the ACMO when they removed the wrapper to see the face of the partially burnt body.

Further rites of cremation of the Ghazipur patient were completed by his family while the ACMO’s family went back to the mortuary to take his body for cremation.

Dr Jung Bahadur Singh, who had a major responsibility of ensuring necessary arrangements at all Covid hospitals in the district, had fallen ill and was admitted to a private hospital last week.

Two days later, the ACMO had been shifted to BHU hospital’s ICU after his test had come positive. He breathed his last on August 11 late at night.