Doctor seeks help from government to get mother’s body from China

The body has been kept at the morgue of a hospital in Zhengzhou since January 24

A recovered patient (in wheelchair) being discharged from Leishenshan Hospital, the newly-built makeshift hospital for novel coronavirus patients, in Wuhan, China on Tuesday.

A doctor from Mumbai has sought help from the Central government to get his mother’s body from China, which is hit by the novel coronavirus epidemic.

The body has been kept at the morgue of a hospital in Zhengzhou since January 24, when Rita Rajinder Mehra died. Dentist Puneet Mehra (35) told PTI that the Embassy of India at Beijing informed him on Monday that the transportation of his mother’s body had got delayed in view of the restrictions on movement of people and vehicles in China following the Coronavirus outbreak.

The Bandra-based doctor has, thus, sought help from the Centre to get his mother’s body at the earliest so that her last rites can be performed here with due respect.

According to the doctor, on January 24, he and his mother were travelling from Melbourne to Mumbai via Beijing on an Air China flight. After about nine hours of the flight takeoff, his mother went to the lavatory. But, as she failed to return to her seat, Mr. Mehra alerted the crew.

The lavatory door was later opened and Mr. Mehra’s mother was found in an unconscious state, he said.

A doctor and a nurse, who were among the passengers, and the crew tried cardiopulmonary resuscitation and later the plane made an emergency landing at Zhengzhou Airport, but the woman died by then, he said.

Mr. Mehra returned on February 7, but his mother’s body is still at the morgue of Henan Provincial Hospital in Zhengzhou.

The doctor has written to President Ram Nath Kovind, office of the External Affairs Ministry, and the Ambassador of India in Beijing to help in getting the body.

“I have also written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and requested the government to facilitate the process of transportation of my mother’s remains to Mumbai at the earliest so that the last rites can be performed with due respect,” Mr. Mehra said.

He said this situation has caused a lot of stress to him and his family. “It has been over 24 days now and we are extremely shattered and going through a lot of emotional stress in this helpless situation.”

He said the hospital in China initially issued a certificate mentioning the cause of his mother’s demise as ‘death before rescue’. After three days, the hospital gave Mr. Mehra another certificate mentioning the cause as “sudden cardiac death very likely”. Later, another certificate was issued mentioning the cause as “sudden death”, he said.

But, China is also facing an equally tragic situation.