Employees of a community health centre in Rajasthan’s Barmer district conducted the postmortem examination of two accident victims on a road, provoking severe criticism from several quarters, the Hindustan Times reported on Thursday.
The police said that the doctors of the Gadara Road Community Health Centre conducted the postmortem examination on Wednesday on Maya Kanwar and her mother-in-law, who died after coming in contact with a live wire. Kanwar’s father-in-law, who also received an electric shock was taken to a hospital in Barmer for treatment.
“There is no mortuary in 100-kilometre stretch between Barmer and Gadara Road,” Barmer’s Chief Medical and Health Officer Kamlesh Choudhary said. “After requests from the police and family members, doctors performed the postmortem [examination] in the open on humanitarian grounds. Protocol has been followed during the postmortem.”
The local administration has ordered an investigation, according to NDTV. A video of the incident showed a man performing the procedure outside the centre’s building, behind a green screen, the report said. The bodies of the two people, however, were visible.
“It is not justified, it is not the first incident,” Manuram Meghwal, a resident of Gadara Road, said. “Here doctors usually perform postmortem in the same manner, it is disappointing.”
Another villager, Sabal Singh Bhati said: “When there is no mortuary facility, they [CHC officials] should take the bodies to the government hospital at Barmer in ambulances instead performing postmortem in the open.”
