SHRC asks hospital to hand over patient's body to his wife

Hyderabad: It was a case of claims and counter claims by a noted hospital and a patient's relative. The relative seems to have won a temporary reprieve after the State Human Rights Commission intervened.

A native of West Bengal, Jyoti Prakash Dubey was suffering from pancreas-related problem for sometime. He was admitted to Asian Institute of Gastroenterology on November 11. Doctors at the hospital diagnosed that his pancreas was completely damaged, but went ahead and performed a laparoscopic surgery. After a month of treatment he died in the hospital on December 18. His body was shifted to NIMS hospital mortuary as the Asian Institute did not have a mortuary.

Meanwhile, Jyoti Prakash's wife Maumitha claimed that she cleared Rs 5 lakhs of hospital bills and was not in a position to pay the balance Rs 2.5 lakhs. She asked the hospital authorities to hand over her husband's body. She alleged that the hospital refused to hand over the body and the post mortem report till the dues are cleared.

Faced with no option, she approached the State Human Rights Commission for redressal on Monday. The Commission ordered the hospital to immediately hand over the body to her. It also directed the Hyderabad district collector to investigate the matter and submit a report.
The hospital on its part acknowledged that Maumitha cleared Rs. 5 lakhs of the bill amount and informed them that she will pay the balance Rs. 2.5 lakhs the next day. It was on her request that the body was shifted to the mortuary, they claimed and added that they did not pressurise her to pay the balance. The hospital PRO flatly denied that they refused to hand over the body and termed the allegations as baseless.