At Government Royapettah Hospital on Friday, the mortuary was full of relatives and friends looking for the bodies of their loved ones who had been admitted to MIOT International Hospital and whose bodies had been brought to the hospital from Thursday night onwards.
Durgaprasad, whose mother Paranjothi was being treated for a shoulder injury at MIOT, was at Royapettah Hospital and in a state of shock. He said, “She was injured in a train accident and was responding well after surgery. Suddenly, I was told that she is dead.”
Gowrishankar, son of Rathinaraj, was inconsolable. He had found out about his father’s death through a relative working as a news editor at a satellite channel. S. Ravi, a local AIADMK councillor, was there to claim the body of Mohan, a relative who had been admitted to MIOT with a head injury a week ago. He was given a certificate claiming the cause of death was ‘road traffic accident.’
IT professional Kalaivanan’s uncle, Vyasarpadi Ratnaraj, was admitted to MIOT on November 30. He said the family was in touch with Ratnaraj on December 2. “The death certificate says he died on December 3. We saw the body in the mortuary and it is bloated — it looks as though it has been soaked in water. The hospital has been completely unresponsive,” he said.
D. Selvam, father of Karthik, an A/C mechanic, was admitted to the hospital after he complained of breathing problems. He claimed that there were no doctors there since Tuesday. “We were helping two staff members bring the bodies out. The family doesn’t know how he died,” he said.
“Last night, we were asked to leave the hospital. Only in the morning I realised that my brother’s body has been brought here. They did not even have the courtesy to inform us,” said D. Dhamu, brother of D. Selvam, a BSNL employee. All Mr. Dhamu had was a piece of paper that said, “the body was brought by Sethu, a liaison officer of the MIOT.”
(With additional inputs from Zubeda Hamid)
