Covid-19 pandemic takes a toll on body donations in Bengal

The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a toll on body donations for research in West Bengal. According to sources in the Health Department since late March majority of the medical colleges in Kolkata have not received any application for body donation.

They also said that a similar situation is prevailing in government and private medical colleges in the districts.

Health Department sources further revealed that at present practical classes for medical students are not being held in view of the pandemic and hence body donations have also declined sharply in the state. Medical college authorities said that since most of the classes are now being held online and hence they have not shown much interest in body donations.

“ We are yet to have the infrastructure required for testing dead bodies for Covid-19. Moreover, we have not received any application these days for body donations,” said Dr. Ashish Ghosal, Head of the Anatomy Department of SSKM Hospital in the city.

Authorities of another premier state-run hospital, the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital said that they are not accepting body donations considering the safety of students.“We have received several bodies of elderly persons-who have pledged for body donation- which have not been tested for Covid-19,” hospital sources said.

Braja Roy, a veteran activist involved in body donations said that hospitals are not accepting donated bodies which has dealt a severe blow to the effort of raising awareness on body donations for scientific research.

Activists pointed out that since bodies of Covid-19 patients are not handed over to their family members no one gets to know whether the deceased had pledged to donate his or her body.

One such instance is the late former Transport Minister in West Bengal Shyamal Chakraborty. Since he died of Covid-19 his body could not be donated despite the fact that he pledged to do so.

His daughter Usashi Chakraborty said “ my father’s wish to donate his body could not be fulfilled. But if someday it can be known for how long the novel coronavirus can survive in the dead body then the option of donating the body of a Covid-19 patient after preserving it for some days can be looked into.”