`Switched after death': Family identifies wrong body, performs last rites; hospital gets it exhumed

Hyderabad: The bodies of two unknown persons, which were preserved at the Osmania General Hospital(OGH) morgue, got swapped on Thursday after a relative mistakenly identified one of them.

The mix-up came to light when one of the families came to the hospital mortuary to collect the body of their loved one. According to the hospital authorities, the mix-up occurred as two unidentified bodies were brought to the mortuary for a post-mortem on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the family of a 40-year-old man from SR Nagar turned up at the mortuary and were handed a body. They performed the last rites and buried it will all the solemnity that marks such an occasion. Later in the day, the family of one Pandu Ranga Chary from Mailadevpally reached the mortuary, and on realizing that the second unidentified body was not their relative.

According to OGH mortuary officials, the bodies were brought to the mortuary by the Mailardevpally and SR Nagar police in separate cases and were kept for identification.

Dr. B Nagender, Supritendednt of Osmania General Hospital said that the bodies were unidentified when they arrived at the morgue. "When the family from SR Nagar were shown the body, the brother of a deceased mistakenly identified the wrong one. it came to light when another family came forward and alerted us about the development. Our mortuary officials quickly alerted the first family. We have released the two bodies to their respective families," he said.