Missing COVID Patient's Decomposed Body Found On Hospital's Vacant Floor

The decomposed body of a woman, who went missing 15 days ago from a hospital's COVID ward, was found on its vacant eighth floor, shocking the staff and her relatives alike.

Sunitha, 41, was admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in the Indian city of Chennai on May 22. She went missing the next day. Despite her husband filing a complaint, she remained untraceable, reports The Times Of India.

Owing to the lockdown imposed in the region and COVID protocols, Sunitha's husband was not allowed to search the hospital himself. So he returned home and kept contacting relatives and authorities, in the hope that Sunitha would turn up somewhere.

Meanwhile, the hospital staff noticed that a foul smell was emanating from its eighth floor. The floor, which housed a conference hall, was vacant and not frequented by other patients or staff.

The hospital employees began a search and found the body of the woman, in the early stages of decomposition. They immediately alerted the police and steps were taken to move the body to the mortuary.

Upon the discovery, a list of missing people was taken and Sunitha's husband was summoned. He positively identified the body.

"The patient went missing on May 23 and her decomposed body was discovered on May 8. She was admitted to the 3rd floor of the hospital and was having severe breathing difficulty. Police were informed about the missing patient on May 23 and so was her husband. The only way to reach the 8th floor is by elevator," Hospital dean E Thenirajan told India Today.

Though there were surveillance cameras inside the building, the investigation revealed they were defunct, leaving authorities in the dark about how the ailing woman ended up on the eighth floor.

Several instances of COVID patients or bodies going missing from Indian hospitals were recorded recently, hinting at the collapse of the nation's healthcare system.

Recently, a man from the Indian capital of New Delhi had approached the police alleging that the body of his 38-year-old sister, who died of COVID-19, went missing from a hospital mortuary.

The family lodged a case against a private hospital after they couldn't locate the body of Deepika, a month after her death at the facility. The woman died in April but the incident came to light only after May 7 when the deceased’s brother, Siddhartha, went to collect her body.