Two bodies got mixed up at Lok Nayak Hospital's mortuary as the deceased persons shared the same name – Moinuddin – resulting in one Kalamuddin having to perform the last rites of his father twice.
According to a report in The Indian Express, Kalamuddin buried two bodies, the first was Aijaz Uddin’s elder brother and the second was that of his father.
Aijaz told IE that on Sunday he had to see nearly 250 dead bodies at the mortuary before he discovered that his brother had been buried a day ago by a different family at a burial ground at Delhi Gate. This led to Aijaz reaching out to the person who had taken the body and asking him to send a photograph of the deceased's face.
When he saw the photo, he immediately recognised his brother.
The mistake took place as the body shown to Kalamuddin at the mortuary on Thursday was difficult to recognise, but the document given to the family bore correct information.
"It is sometimes difficult to identify the body because people are often anxious in a mortuary and after death, the face lacks expression, which also makes it difficult," a hospital official was quoted as saying.
The official added that efforts would be made to make sure that such errors are not repeated.
Kalamuddin’s father was undergoing dialysis at a hospital near the family's residence in Patparganj and was asked to get a Covid test done at Lok Nayak Hospital on June 4. On that very night, he suffered kidney failure and passed away, Kalamuddin's wife told the publication.
Aijaz's brother, meanwhile, was taken to the hospital on June 2 after his blood pressure dropped and he subsequently passed away as the hospital employees were conducting an ECG test. In a double tragedy for the family, his brother's wife, too, suffered a cardiac arrest and died upon hearing the news of her husband's demise, Aijaz said.
Aijaz's brother was found Covid-19 positive when the results came back two days later.
When Aijaz went to the mortuary to collect his brother's body on June 5, he says, the hospital gave him the incorrect report and showed him a body that was not of his brother's.