Dead Body swap # Covid; unprecedented stress- Bizarre mistakes

Two incidents of dead body swaps have happened in last few months. Strangely two mistakes out of   correct millions  are enough to label hospitals, doctors  or health systems  as  callous. Covid times are  toughest times for health care staff and hospitals as well.

   Definitely it is sad and  painful  incident. Without doubt, swapping bodies and causing distress to relatives is really shocking.  There will be a  demand for exemplary  punishment to  health  care workers involved. There is a little doubt that they will meet the stringent punishment, as this is regarded as unpardonable, given the involvement of health care staff.

  But is that the right way? Will chopping the hands, that were trying to rescue, is of help?

          No one will like to see, how health workers have been  stressed. Under the unprecedented circumstances, how fewer number of frontline workers have been battling the pandemic.

      Armchair preachers cannot imagine the stress and the hard work, these   warriors are burdened with. There can be multiple ways to look at these unforeseen mistakes.

1. Punish the health workers, make an example by taking away their jobs. So everyone  will learn.
2. Check the faults in the system, make the whole system fool-proof by learning from the mistakes, so it becomes more robust with times to come.
3. Counselling   of the personnel involved along with improving the system.
4. Understand the stress and circumstances of front line workers and improving their working conditions, so as to reduce their  burden.
5. Check the past record, if someone has done thousands right things, do not hang him for a single error, especially intoday’s unprecedented circumstances.  

Most desirable  at such crucial times will be encouragement and psychological support to front line workers.

Bodies swapped at private hospital in Delhi,

NEW DELHI: A private hospital in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka committed a grave error by handing over the body of a Christian woman to the family of a Covid-positive Hindu woman. The 69-year-old woman, Garikapati Parisuddam, was not infected with the novel coronavirus and had passed away on Monday morning.

AIIMS sacks one, suspends another for swapping of dead bodies

An ambulance with four corpses – including that of Anjum B – left from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. Three of the persons who had died were Hindu and were taken to a crematorium before the van left for the ITO burial ground.

  Just  delivering professional death sentence for  single, system errors  or unforeseen mistakes will have  future implications.  It is like chopping the hands,  that were trying to help.

           As Corona has unmasked the real risk to health workers and society has dealt with heath workers shabbily. Next younger generation of aspiring doctors, who is a witness to the cruelty shown towards health staff, may be forced to think about their decisions to become health workers. Possibly the administrators need to ponder now, who will treat people  in next pandemic.

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