‘Dead’ man returns home a week after his funeral

In a surprising incident, a 40-year-old man, who was said to be dead, returned home a week after his family performed his funeral.

Isn’t bizarre! It all happened because a state-run hospital in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand declared the man named Goverdhan Prajapat, who was admitted at the hospital for treatment, unidentified. Later, Omkar Lal Gadulia’s relatives wrongly took possession of that body.

However, Gadulia had gone to Udaipur without telling his family on May 11. He was a liquor addict and was admitted to a hospital after having some liver-related problem. Gadulia’s family was living with his brother after the govt imposed the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Prajapat was also taken from the Mohi area to the RK Hospital by an ambulance driver who died during treatment.

"We had got a letter from the hospital authorities that a body was lying unclaimed at the mortuary for three days. We then circulated photographs of the deceased man on various fronts to identify the body”, Kankroli police station SHO Yogendra Vyas told PTI.

On May 15, over dozen people came to the hospital to identify the body. However, the family members of Gadulia wrongly identified the body after seeing a similar scar on his right hand and appearance. Therefore, police handed over the dead body without conducting any post-mortem and DNA tests on the family’s written request.

However, DNA testing and post-mortem are conducted when the dead body is unidentified following which the body is usually handed over to the municipality for cremation, Vyas said.

The final rites of the body were performed by the family on May 15. Surprisingly, Gadulia returned home on May 23 and all of his family members were left shocked to see him alive.

Later, police found in an investigation that the body which Gadulia’s family had cremated was of Goverdhan Prajapat. Police were nowhere at fault in this case.

Meanwhile, the hospital authorities admitted that the whole incident was a goof-up on part of the nursing and mortuary staff. The incident took place due to the lack of coordination between the mortuary and nursing staff.

The Principal Medical Officer of RK Hospital, Lalit Purohit assured that the appropriate action will be taken in the matter.

-With agency inputs

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