Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Dec 24: A tug-of-war on the issue of handing over body of a man from Chikkamagaluru, who was injured in an accident and died without responding to treatments, ensued between the management of city hospital and relatives of the deceased on Sunday December 23.

Parameshwar from Chikkamagaluru had suffered injuries in an accident. He had been admitted into City Hospital at around 3 am on Saturday. He died on Sunday morning, and medical bills amounting to around Rs 5,000 were pending at the hospital.

Relatives of the deceased accused the hospital management of refusing to part with the body pending payment of bills. They also complained to Kadri police station about this issue. Thereafter, the issue moved between the police, hospital and the family of the deceased repeatedly til 6 pm. Finally, after all the parties entered into an understanding, the body was handed over to the family and then shifted to Wenlock district hospital for postmortem on Sunday evening.

The police officials said that the relatives of the deceased had complained that the hospital refused to hand over the body pending payment of the bill. After the police personnel went and handled the issue, it was settled, they claimed.

Head of City Hospital, Dr Bhaskar Shetty, clarified that the allegation about keeping the body pending by the hospital for money was false. He said that the motal remains were to be handed over to the police as it was a case of accidental death. As the police cause inordinate delay in issuing receipt for having received the body caused the delay, he explained. "We had completed all the processes to hand over the body at 12 pm but the police committed mistake and the hospital faced the allegations unnecessarily," he stated.