The parents of an 11-month old baby girl, who had died of an unidentified malady, are reported to have been asked to take the body from Metigahatenne Madulsima Hospital in a three -wheeler to the Badulla Hospital mortuary, a distance of 45 kilometers. Arriving at the hospital, the thoroughly exhausted and stressed out parents were in for a further shock when the Badulla Hospital authorities refused to accept the body to be kept at the mortuary. Thereafter the parents were compelled to take the body to the Nuwara Eliya Hospital in the same three-wheeler.

The child had been treated for about four months at the Metigahatenne hospital for some kind of cutaneous itching, and when her condition had worsened she had to be admitted to the same hospital where she died.

The hospital authorities had ordered the body of the child to be wrapped in a polythene bag and handed over to the parents to be taken to the Badulla Hospital for further investigations.

The post mortem examination was to be held at the Nuwara Eliya Hospital where the body was taken after it was refused to be accepted by the Badulla Hospital Mortuary staff. (Palitha Ariyawansa)