Mumbai: BMC-Run Shatabdi Hospital Makes Son Wrap His COVID-19 Mother's Dead Body, Two Staffers Suspended
The staff at BMC-run Shatabdi Hospital made a 21-year-old man wrap his mother's dead body in a bag without providing any protective equipment.
Mumbai, July 4: The staff at BMC-run Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivali made a 21-year-old man wrap his mother's dead body in a bag without providing any protective equipment. The incident took place with Borivali resident Kunal Utekar whose 50-year-old mother, Pallavi Utekar, had died of coronavirus (COVID-19) on July 2. Following the incident, two staffers of the BMC-run hospital were suspended, pending enquiry, reported Mumbai Mirror. Video Shows Dead Bodies Lying Beside Living Patients in Sion Hospital, BMC Orders Probe.
On June 30, Pallavi Utekar displayed symptoms of COVID-19 after which she was taken to Shatabdi Hospital. On July 2, Kunal received a call from the hospital, asking him to come immediately. On reaching, he was informed that his mother had passed away. While he was completing the formalities, he was asked to help the nurses put her body in a bag. He had to call his cousin to the hospital for help in moving his mother's body from the ward to a stretcher. Mumbai: Video Shows Overcrowded Ward Inside KEM Hospital, Two Patients Kept on One Bed.
"I was shocked,” Kunal said. The hospital didn’t even give me 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-19 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," Kunal was quoted as saying.
"No child should face such a situation. I can’t express what I was feeling at that moment. But I did it because I love my mother and I am proud of her hard work and the way she raised me," he added. Kunal's father is undergoing treatment for COVID-19. The only child of his parents, Kunal is presently in the third year of B.Com at Borivali's Gokhale College.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 04, 2020 02:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).