Not informed of father's death due to COVID-19, alleges man; hospital denies

Family members of an elderly man who tested positive for COVID-19 and died last week in a Kolkata hospital on Thursday alleged that they were not informed of his demise even three days after his body was cremated by the local administration.

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Authorities of the MR Bangur Hospital where he was undergoing treatment, however, claimed that the family members, who were on institutional quarantine, have been informed.

A health department official said the matter would be investigated.

The septuagenarian from Keshab Chandra Sen Street in central Kolkata was admitted to the male isolation ward of the MR Bangur Hospital on April 29 and he died on May 2. The body was cremated on the same day, sources in the hospital said.

The man's wife, two sons and a daughter-in-law were sent for quarantine in Rajarhat. Neither they nor his another son staying in Barrackpore were contacted by the hospital after his death, alleged his youngest son Arijit Sen.

"Since we are in the quarantine centre and could not go to the hospital, we tried to keep in contact with the hospital via phone. The last time we managed to talk to anybody there was on May 1. Since then, there was not a single call from them," Sen told PTI.

The call record in his phone can prove that none from the hospital contacted them, Sen said adding that he got the bad news from someone from an insurance company on May 5.

It was, however, not clear why the man from the insurance company had called him up as his father did not have any such policy, private or government, Sen said.

"The man had called up to enquire whether or not my father had enrolled for any life insurance policy. He informed me that my father died on May 2," he said.

The family members then started calling the number of the ward master at the isolation ward for COVID-19 patients at the MR Bangur hospital.

"After at least four to five calls, someone answered it and said my father died around 4 PM on May 2 and his body was cremated by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on that very day," the man's eldest son Abhijit Sen, who stays in Barrackpore, told PTI.

"This is absolutely inhuman. We know the protocol of cremating a COVID-19 patient but at least the hospital authorities or the state health department could have informed us about my father's death. We have at least that right," Arijit Sen said.

When contacted, MR Bangur Hospital superintendent Sisir Naskar said he came to know about the familys allegation from a social media post.

"When I asked our nodal officer about it, he told me that he had informed them about the death. The state health department was also informed. The department, in turn, told KMC officials who took the body for the last rites," Naskar told PTI.

A senior official of the state health department said a proper enquiry will be initiated into the matter.

"This matter will definitely be looked into. There must have been some miscommunication," he said on condition of anonymity.

Incidentally, two family members of the deceased tested positive for the virus on Thursday and were shifted from the quarantine centre to a hospital in Rajarhat.

Till Wednesday, West Bengal has recorded 72 deaths directly due to COVID-19 while another 72 succumbed because of comorbidity conditions, where coronavirus was incidental.

At the moment there are at least 1,047 active cases of COVID-19 in the state.