Representative imageIf you have seen people waiting in front of a mortuary to get post-mortem done on the body of their relative, you can never forget their faces. An archaic practice of doing the examination only in daylight piles more misery on their plight. Authorities turn a blind eye to the inconvenience and hardship they cause to the relatives of a deceased when they refuse to accept an application for post-mortem after fixed hours.
This strange practice is unique to Kerala. District hospitals and Medical College hospitals accept applications for post-mortem from 9 in the morning to 4 in the evening. Any request received after the deadline will be considered only for the next day, forcing the relatives to wait with the dead body.
Doctors and forensic surgeons hesitate to receive applications for post-mortem after 4 in the evening, citing a couple of government circulars.
Nothing in the criminal procedure code or the orders of the Police Department bars post-mortem at night. For some reason, doctors and surgeons continue doing it in the daylight, following an unwritten convention. Once an unnatural death is reported, the inquest takes at least two hours to complete. The body can be taken to the mortuary for post-mortem only after this.
When the relatives of the deceased reach the mortuary after going through the legal proceedings with the police, they are often told that the time is up.
I have faced this situation throughout my service life. I had to turn many people away because they had come late. I had to look the other way when their eyes well up with tears.
Doctors and forensic surgeons refuse to conduct post-mortem, citing a circular from the Health Department and another from the Home Department. Faced with a volley of criticism, the Home Department issued an order on February 23, 2013, directing the medical colleges in Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Thrissur and Kozhikode to conduct post-mortem at night as well. But this order left a loophole as it said post-mortem may be conducted at night, instead of clearly stating that it has to be done at night as well.
It also says that post-mortem can be done with the help of the duty personnel as and when associated facilities are prepared. The order has not been implemented even after two years.
The doctors at the Alappuzha Medical College are worth emulating though. Only here the doctors conduct post-mortem and release the body even though the application is received late in the evening. Why can’t the other Medical Colleges follow the same system?
Post-mortem is done smoothly at night in many foreign countries. Major hospitals in India too follow this practice.
People who insist that post-mortem has to be done only in the daylight and that night-time proceedings will tinker with evidence are trying to sabotage the latest government order.
The Health Department has to create facilities such as the shadowless lights in mortuaries so that post-mortem can be done round the clock. The state government has to release a special fund for this.
(The writer is the head of Forensic Department at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi. He had served as the Medical Education Director, Government of Kerala)
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