Rajkot : Six months after battling the Covid-19 pandemic, Gujarat has become the second hub in India after Bhopal AIIMS, where the patients who died of Covid19 are being studied. Here research is done on the body of the deceased to find out how this deadly virus destroys the human body and the research is going on to find any clues in connection with the deaths due to this deadly virus.
The autopsy of five bodies has been done so far at the PDU Government Medical College affiliated to Rajkot Civil Hospital. One of the most shocking information of all post mortems is that the coronavirus makes the human body’s spongy lungs so stiff – as if they were made of stone! This causes the breathing problems in person and causes death.
Dr. Hetal Kyada, Professor and Head of Forensic Medicine at PDU GMC, reported that in his 13-year career in forensic medicine, she has seen it for the first time when a viral disease has hardened the lungs like a stone.
Dr. Kyada says, “Lungs are spongy organs. If understood by this common example, you can compare them to bread, which remain soft even when pressed. In autopsy of the patients suffering of lung cancer, pneumonia, and TB, we see that the lungs become stiff, but the corona causes severe damage. When you cut the lung of a Kovid patient, it feels like you are cutting a stone.”
Dr. Kyada says that doctors have noticed another weired change that the coronavirus increases the weight of patients’ lungs four times without any swelling or increase in size. Dr. Kyada stated, “The normal weight of the lung is between 375 grams and 400 grams. The lung weight of corona victims is up to 1,200-1,300 grams.”
Covid-19 has killed 3,442 people since the first case of viral infection was registered in Gujarat on March 19. Six months after battling the epidemic, autopsy of those who died of Corona has started in the state.
Convincing the family to perform an autopsy of the corpse is a major challenge. Doctors at Rajkot Medical College say that only relatives of one of the 15 corona patients allow postmortem. Autopsies provide unique clues on how the infection destroys the human body.