A family in Kolkata had to forcibly fetch an ice-cream freezer to store the body of a 71-year-old man who tested for COVID-19 died on Monday. Civic authorities collected the body after 48 hours of struggle and helplessness on Wednesday to cremate it.
It was reported that the family members sought help from doctors and pleaded to to issue a death certificate. On Monday the patient’s sons took him for a diagnostic test after observing severe cough and fever. But the condition aggravated and soon the man died around 3 p.m. Doctors arrived with PPE kit but didn’t issue the death certificate as the test result was due. Reportedly, his sons roamed around mortuaries for help but were prohibited for cremation unless there is a death certificate.
Earnest continuous calls and requests to the health department, civic authorities, the police and local MLA too did not salvage this pathetic situation. The apartment was sanitised only after 50 hours of the man’s death. Cops too arrived on repeated calls only on Wednesday as per the reports.
On Tuesday morning, as the dead body began decomposing in the heat, the helpless family hired an ice-cream freezer to preserve the corpse. That evening, the 71 year old man died in a couple of hours after undergoing a COVID-19 test.
One of the Heath official claimed that it would have been a possible miscommunication that lead to a helpless death and said they are looking into the matter.