An office at SSKM Hospital lies vandalised after a wrong death note sparked trouble. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

A doctor who recorded the wrong date and time of a woman’s death was the trigger for a daylong drama at SSKM that led to the deceased’s sons being arrested for vandalism and delayed the body’s release.

Narayan and Lakshman Dey were freed from the Bhowanipore police station lock-up only around 9.30pm on Thursday and received their mother Ruma’s body more than 12 hours after she died at SSKM.

There was little consolation in the SSKM authorities admitting that a mistake "on the hospital’s part" led to the Dey brothers being arrested, and the delay in completing the formality of handing Ruma’s body over to her family.

“This was a mistake on the hospital’s part and such a casual approach will not be tolerated,” said medical superintendent Ashok Ghosh. “We have started an inquiry and action will be taken against the person responsible for this. Such an incident wouldn’t have happened if the mistake wasn’t committed.”

A resident of Chetla Haat Road, Ruma was admitted to SSKM at 9.59am — this is the time mentioned in the hospital register — and died while being taken from the emergency unit to the female cardiology ward. One of the resident medical officers entered the time of her death as “9.35am” and the date as “July 9, 2007” in the provisional note.

Trouble started when Ruma’s family members, who had been handed that note by a nurse, went to the ward master for the formal death certificate and permission to take away the body. When the ward master pointed out that the information in the note was wrong, Narayan and Lakshman went back to the cardiology ward but were told that the doctor who wrote the note had left.

The brothers next went to the medical superintendent’s office, but did not find him there. Livid, they and some relatives started damaging hospital property. A police team arrived around 1.45pm and arrested eight persons, including Narayan and Lakshman.

The standoff continued till 10pm, when the brothers reached the hospital morgue straight from Bhowanipore police station and took custody of their mother’s body.

Abhijit Banerjee, the head of the cardiology department, echoed the superintendent about the hospital staff being at fault. “A note (by the resident doctor) is not a death certificate, and it was the responsibility of the hospital staff to take it to the department concerned and issue the death certificate after four hours.”

The fact that the note was handed over to the family members was itself a violation of official procedure, he said.

At the Dey household, Narayan and Lakshman’s sister Beauty Pattanaik said the family had been through a lot since Wednesday, when Ruma’s cardiac condition deteriorated.

She had been taken to SSKM, but was referred to MR Bangur Hospital in Tollygunge. From there, she was sent to Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital and discharged at 1am on Thursday. The family took her back to SSKM when her condition worsened.