CHENNAI: As if the death of their loved ones wasn’t bad enough, the families of two deceased men suffered another tragedy on Thursday when the bodies got mixed up at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital . Worse, by the time the ‘deadly swap’ was realized, one body had been buried after ‘rituals’.

The family members of Vellore-based 28-year-old Manoj found themselves staring at the body of Manikandan of Medavakkam in Chennai. Then, as Manoj lay buried in Medavakkam, they complied with the ‘formalities’ and got the body exhumed for a proper burial. The hospital administration has suspended an employee in the mortuary for the goof-up.

According to the hospital administration, Manikandan, 20, had been admitted to the hospital with heart problems on September 30 and died the same day after failing to respond to treatment. Manoj, who had been admitted to the hospital a few days ago with tuberculosis and other chronic ailments, also died the same day. Since it was late, the hospital staff decided to keep both bodies in the morgue and hand them over to the families the following day.

But Manikandan’s family members came to the hospital the same night and received the body. Within the next few hours, they completed the burial after performing the necessary rituals. The next day, when Manoj’s family members was handed over the body they found it belonged to someone else. They immediately confronted the staff in the hospital mortuary.

“We could not believe the bodies got swapped. When confronted, the hospital administration initially did not have any proper answers. This is atrocious on the hospital’s part. It resulted in an argument that lasted over two hours,” said a relative of Manoj. The family members, relatives, police and the hospital authorities rushed to the Medavakkam ground where the body was buried. They exhumed the body and realized it had been buried the previous day by Manikandan’s relatives.

To avoid further confusion, the doctors performed an autopsy on the exhumed body and confirmed that it belonged to Manoj. “The body was not in a condition to be transported all the way to Vellore for the funeral. So Manoj’s relatives performed the rituals again and buried the body in the same spot it was exhumed from,” said hospital sources. In the meantime, Manikandan’s relatives took his body home from the morgue to perform the last rites.

When contacted, a senior doctor at the hospital said it was a one-off incident and confirmed that the administration had placed Rathinam, a staff member working in the mortuary, under suspension for his careless behaviour.