In a major lapse, family members of a 22-year-old man who died in a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh a few days back were asked to take the body of a 65-year-old man, prompting the administration to suspend a doctor on August 10.

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The family members protested and refused to take the body from the hospital's mortuary when they realised it was not that of the 22-year-old man. The deceased's father said the district Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) claimed his son was cremated by local body authorities. The suspended doctor is an assistant professor of the medical college to which the hospital is attached, officials said.

The deceased was admitted in the government-run Sanjay Gandhi Hospitals ICU ward on August 3 after initial treatment at Mauganj near here as he had severe body ache, his father told reporters on August 10. After that doctors referred him to the COVID-19 centre within the hospital and since then no information was provided about him, he alleged. After three-four days when they tried to find out the condition of the ailing man, the doctors on August 9 informed family members that he has died and asked them to identify the body in the mortuary, his father said.

When the bag in which the body was kept was opened, they were shocked to find that it was of a 65-year-old man but the tag on it was that of his son, he said. Enraged over it, the family members gheraoed the offices of commissioner and superintendent of police demanding action against negligent doctors.

The deceased's father said till date they have not been given the COVID-19 test report of his son. Meanwhile, taking the matter seriously, the Rewa division commissioner suspended assistant professor of the government medical college, Dr Rakesh Patel, on charges of negligence in the matter, the officials said. The father alleged that probably hospital authorities cremated his son along with others a few days ago, but are not revealing the truth behind his death. Though Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Dr Yatnesh Tripathi claimed that the body was cremated by local body authorities, the family has not yet received his ashes, the distraught father said.