The Ahmedabad Civil Hospital is gradually finding a semblance of normalcy almost three weeks after the Air India flight AI 171 crashed into the BJ Medical College hostel.
However, according to reports, human remains continue to be unearthed from the crash site.
On June 28, after a painstaking and prolonged process of DNA extraction from charred remains, the Health Department, via the hospital, handed over the body of the last passenger, Anil Khimani from Kutch.
Altogether, 260 fatalities have been confirmed. Among these, 254 victims were identified through DNA matching, six through facial recognition.
Vishwas Kumar Ramesh emerged as the sole survivor of the catastrophe.
Despite the efforts, Ahmedabad Civil Hospital still retains 15 remains or exhibits recovered from the site, the most recent being a femur bone found as late as June 27. DNA extraction on these remnants is ongoing, with officials assuring that, once matched with referral samples, these will be handed over to the families after identities are conclusively established.
Health department authorities revealed to a certain section of the media that final decisions regarding these 15 remains will depend on the consent forms families had filled out at the time of body handovers.
According to insiders, families had specified in these consent forms whether they would personally claim any further remains discovered or permit hospital authorities to follow protocol and await the conclusion of search and investigative operations.
Officials conceded the difficulty in providing any fixed timeline for this process, stating that most families have opted either to be contacted upon discovery or to allow the hospital to proceed. For these 15 remains, the final call will be taken based upon the consent forms, which the families filled when they were handed over the bodies, a senior health official conveyed.
The victims’ families received the remains—charred or otherwise identified via DNA—in sealed coffins, with strict advisories not to open them. Of the 260 bodies, 31 were airlifted by the state government, including 13 sent to the UK, while transportation for the remaining 229 was arranged on land.
Meanwhile, BJ Medical College, deeply affected by the tragedy, is inching back towards routine. Dean Dr Meenakshi Parikh has said that classes resumed on June 23, “with heavy hearts,” signalling a sombre return to normal academic operations. The college’s Kasauti Bhawan, previously converted into a DNA collection center for victims’ relatives, has now gone back to its academic role, conducting undergraduate MBBS preliminary exams since last week.
Dr Parikh further explained that only two DNA samples remain to be collected from relatives who are British nationals.
Consequently, the Kasauti Bhawan facility was closed on June 21 and the operations shifted to the D2 ward near the Trauma Centre, where the first examination was held on June 26.
Kasauti Bhawan had been chosen as the DNA collection centre due to its capacity to accommodate nearly 700 people and its location away from the Trauma Centre. Initially, the E1 ward of the Civil Hospital was designated for DNA sample collection, but this arrangement was short-lived before the centre was relocated to Kasauti Bhawan.
Dr Rakesh Joshi, Medical Superintendent at the hospital, told a media outlet that at the Kasauti Bhawan facility, samples were sometimes collected from as many as seven individuals simultaneously. He said that the entire operation—from DNA sample collection to the delivery of bodies—was conducted in a meticulously planned, well-coordinated manner involving several agencies.
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