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Pune: Over 300 visceras in cold storage at YCM Hospital for months; probe ordered

Source: , Posted On:   04 April 2021

Pune: Over 300 visceras in cold storage at YCM Hospital for months; probe ordered

As many as 300 visceras have been lying uncollected at Pimpri’s YCM Hospital (YCHM) for months, likey delaying probe in several medico-legal cases.

YCMH dean Dr Rajendra Wable said: “Though the Pimpri-Chinchwad police have collected them, the rural police is yet to collect them,” he said.

Dr Shrikant Shinge, who heads the postmortem department at YCMH, said examination of the viscera helps in establishing the exact cause of death and is a common procedure in probes related to suspicious deaths or in other medico-legal cases.

“The police have to collect the viscera and get it tested at the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory. The test proves whether the death was due to consumption of alcohol or poison or any other reason,” Shingle said.

“It is true that several viscera after postmortem have been pending with us. We have requested the rural police to collect them but are waiting for their response,” he said.

Dr Shingle said the hospital preserves the viscera in saturated salt solution, but it cannot be store for long.

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“Viscera is nothing but small parts of stomach, kidney, liver and spleen. This is preserved in the saturated salt solution. But even in this solution, it cannot last for more than three months. It has to be collected quickly and tested at the laboratory. After some time the test results would yield nothing useful,” he said.

Criminal lawyer Sushil Mancharkar said police investigation in several cases could have been affected if the viscera was not tested in time.

“Viscera is very important in medico-legal cases. Once the cause of death is known, the police go ahead by filing FIR….Viscera helps understand the high level alcohol consumed or the kind of poison,” he said.

Mancharkar said that postmortems were optional earlier, but are now mandatory. “Nearly two years back, post-mortems were optional. If a people’s representative gave a letter, then postmortem was waived. But two years back, the government has made it mandatory to have postmortems in all deaths where the cause of the death is not known. However, if a patient, say, dies while undergoing treatment for Covid, there is no need for a postmortem as it well-established that he was suffering from Covid,” he said.

Mancharkar said the police not collecting the visceras is a serious matter. “This must have affected several cases,” he said.

When contacted, Additional SP (Baramati), Milind Mohite who is holding temporary charge of rural SP, said, he will ask officials to investigate the matter. “I will ask officials to visit YCM hospital and find out what exactly has happened so that corrective action can be taken.”

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