Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital, Pune. (Source: www.ycmhpgi.org) As many as 300 visceras are lying uncollected at the YCM Hospital in Pimpri for months, likely delaying probe into several medico-legal cases.
Dr Rajendra Wable, dean of YCMH, said: “The Pimpri-Chinchwad police have collected them, but the rural police is yet to do so.”
Dr Shrikant Shinge, who heads the post-mortem department at YCMH, said the examination of viscera helped in establishing the exact cause of death and was a common procedure in probes related to suspicious deaths or other medico-legal cases.
“Police have to collect the viscera and get it tested at Regional Forensic Science Laboratory. The test proves whether death was due to consumption of alcohol or poison or any other reason,” Dr Shingle said.
“It is true that several viscera after post-mortem are pending with us. We have requested the rural police to collect them, but are waiting for their response,” he said.
Dr Shingle also said the hospital preserved the viscera in a saturated salt solution, but it could not be stored for long.
“Viscera is nothing but small parts of stomach, kidney, liver and spleen. This is preserved in a 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 added.
Criminal lawyer Sushil Mancharkar said police investigation in several cases could be affected if the viscera was not tested in time.
“Viscera is important in medico-legal cases. Once the cause of death is known, police go ahead by filing an FIR… Viscera helps understand the level of alcohol consumed or any kind of poison,” he said.
Mancharkar said post-mortems were optional earlier, but were mandatory now. “Nearly two years ago, post-mortems were optional. If a people’s representative gave a letter, then post-mortem was waived. But two years ago, the government made it mandatory in all deaths where cause is not known. However, if a patient, say, dies while undergoing treatment for Covid, there is no need for a post-mortem as it is well-established that the person was suffering from Covid,” he said.
Mancharkar said police not collecting visceras was a serious matter. “This must have affected several medico-legal cases.”
Additional Superintended of Police (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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