RANCHI: The handing over of US citizen and acclaimed photographer Marcus Leatherdale’s body to his next of kin in a decomposed state has brought to the fore the abysmal condition of the morgue at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims), the state’s largest hospital and medical college.
Two factors are mainly responsible, one, lackadaisical approach of the management and two, negligence in maintaining equipment by the company responsible for the maintenance of the morgue.
TOI visited the morgue on Friday which was made operational in 2019 but the 50-compartment facility has been defunct for more than six months now. The unclaimed bodies which are housed at this morgue always get decayed, sometimes due to negligence of staff who do not treat the bodies according to protocol while sometimes becaue of the non-functional air-conditioning.
Currently, there are two unclaimed bodies at the Rims morgue, half-decomposed. During the visit by TOI on Friday, it came to light that five out of nine chillers at the morgue continue to be defunct. Apart from that, the outsourcing staff deputed by Rims too aren’t cleaning the area citing air-conditioning failure and the decayed bodies. A morgue staff confirmed that bodies are getting decayed as the air-conditioning system isn’t working properly. President of Mukti Sanstha, Praveen Lohia, who facilitates the cremation of unclaimed bodies said the problem is chronic not only in summers but they have received decayed bodies even in winters. Lohia said on an average, 10 bodies are stored every month and they carry out the cremation once they are communicated by Rims after 45 days.
Rims deputy medical superintendent Dr Shailesh Tripathi said, “We have taken note of the issue and the agency has been asked to fix it immediately. On Wednesday, too, we have reminded thems.”
