90-year-old had willed his body to a medical college, but it refused to accept it as he died after 'office hours'
90-year-old had willed his body to a medical college, but it refused to accept it as he died after 'office hours'
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If you're one of those people planning to pledge their body for organ donation, then here's a piece of advice for you. Make sure you 'die' between 10 am and 5 pm, normal working hours of medical colleges so that your body can be respectfully accepted. Because if not, then the dead body would simply have to wait till the office opens up for the next working day.
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| Sorry, no admission! Relatives who did the rounds of hospitals trying to donate Vasant Patwardhan's body. |
This is one bitter lesson that members of ex-military engineer Vasant Patwardhan's family learnt on Tuesday night.
A resident of Kothrud, Patwardhan had pledged his body to a medical college in 2005.
The ex-military man wanted medical students to benefit from his death, as he was especially concerned about the shortage of bodies in medical colleges that were blunting the surgical skills of doctors.
As the 90-year-old breathed his last on Tuesday evening, his family was informed of his decision by his wife.
"As my father had also donated his body, I knew the procedure and we put his body in an ambulance and went to a homeopathic college that he had pledged it to. On reaching, we were informed that the anatomy department shuts down at 5 pm and since we were late in getting the body they couldn't accept it. They didn't have a morgue or cold storage facilities to keep the body. They just refused to accept it," said Suhas Datar, Patwardhan's nephew.
The family then did the rounds of a couple of other hospitals, which cited reasons from overcrowded cold storage to no staffers at work for not accepting the body.
Finally at around 1 am, the family managed to get a cabinet in the cold storage at Sassoon hospital's morgue that could keep Patwardhan's body overnight.
However the family that was made to run from pillar to post for what is considered a noble act, wants nothing to do with body donation any more.
Family disturbed
"His wife was so upset over the disrespect shown to his dead body and their laziness and inefficiency that she decided to cremate his body. But, we asked her to wait for a while. The behaviour of these people was very hurtful. How can someone time their death to fall between their working hours?" asked Datar.
An employee at Sassoon hospital's morgue said that such cases have happened before. "The bodies that come for donation have to go to anatomy department as that is where the medical students learn to operate on. But these departments have daytime working hours and many times bodies are rejected if they come after office hours. Then we have to keep them in cold storage but sometimes even we don't have space," he said. "Ideally anatomy department should have one working clerk and staff to accept donations at least."
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