an experience that was not

I was excited to get the information that a youth admitted to Narmada Hospital (Bhopal) spent some time in the martuary of government Hamidia Hospital, thanks to the government hospital staff's 'criminal negligence' in declaring the youth dead while he was alive.

Narmada Hospital administrator S Sunil couldn't believe his ears when the youth's parents told him the youth's horrifying experiences. His parents told him that when the hospital staff at the mortuary was about to put a label on the dead body he noticed some movement in the body. Alarmed as he was he immediately informed the doctors about the same and the youth was brought back to the hospital emergency ward. His parents later shifted their son to the abovementioned private hospital.

Though a political beat reporter I could not resist the urge from within to grab the scoop and go ahead filing the report for my newspaper when I came to know about the incident.

I had a talk with S Sunil, the youth Anand, a resident of 11-LIG Colony near Vivekanand School, Bidar, Karnataka. The all he could remember he was travelling in a train going from Bidar to Samastipur (Bihar) to see his friend. He was sitting on the gate of a general compartment. He did not remember what happened to him but when he regained his consciousness he found himself in the (Narmada) hospital.

Of course, it seemed the 26-year-old youth had fallen off the train either due to impact of the train movement or Perhaps he dozed off and fell from the train. Anand did not remember anything about the mortuary incident but his parents told that they were told by the government hospital staff about their son being put in the mortuary and then being revived. With God's grace the mortuary staff noticed movement in his body and he could survive. Still, they said, their son was so traumatised by the experinece that he often saw himself in his dream lying among the dead bodies and would wake up frightened.

Since the parents (father Dashrath is a clerk in the district court, Bidar and mother Renuka is housewife) who could not afford costly treatment at the private hospital wanted to take their son home for further treatment immediately (subject to availability of train reservation), I lost no time in talking to them and get them photographed. 

Sticking to journalistic basics pays you. My belief in the same got further strengthened after I proceeded to work on the story.

A tendency of some journalists these days is to file stories based on allegations coming from somebody and balance the story with versions from the other side.

Since, there was no first person account of harrowing tale of the youth I decided to verify the facts by talking to the police personnel and hospital staff and seeing the hospital records. Even otherwise, the youth's experience (even if he would have told me about his being in mortuary) could not have been believed blindly, for his mother told me that her son was not mentally sound for quite some time due to some unknown reasons and that this was the reason why they put in an ashram where he spent two months time.

Coming back to the basics, when I contacted the police constable who was sent to the hospital by his seniors on coming to know about the incident told me that the youth was in his senses when he reached the hospital. He got the cellnumber of his father from the youth only and informed him on phone.

On visiting the hospital it took about half an hour after looking into hospital records that he was brought to the hospital by 108 ambulance service at 4 am on October 20, not on 18th/19th night. He was shifted to surgery ward-5. I met the doctors and the nurses in surgery ward-5 and some other surgery wards too. There was hardly any evidence to corroborate the information (as was reportedly given by the same hospital staff to the youth's parents) that he was considered dead during the treatment and was sent to the mortuary.

About the youth's so called nightmare that he saw himself among the dead bodies a doctor told me after accident a person might undergo such unusual experiences due to impact of the accident. In this case, the youth had sustained injuries in his head also.

There was a possibility that when the youth was brought to emergency ward he might have mistaken the other patients lying as dead, as he was not fully conscious at that time.

The youngh doctor said it was he who received the patient and treated him. He was in the ward till 6 am. There was hardly any possibility of any goof-up in the daytime. Even otherwise it was not possible. And the very next day his parents came and took him to any private hospital. 

Still deciding not to leave any stone unturned I looked into the register bearing the information about the dead being taken to the mortuary from the ward. There was no mention at all.

In a nutshell, it turned out to be a youth's experience in a mortuary where it was not.

I was sad that I missed a scoop but satisfied also that a thorough investigation and my decision not to file a 'balanced story' saved me from a situation in which I would not have been able to give answers to my own questions coming from the inner self.

However, I admit that I didn't to a great job by trying to verify the facts with some legwork and tie the loose ends. I did what a journalist should have done.