The mortal remains of Polish mountaineer lukasz Jan Chrzanowski who fell to his death at Shivling peak in Uttarkashi district on October 13 have been stuck in Government red-tapism. The doctors of the Uttarkashi district hospital who conducted the post-mortem examination on Saturday sent the body to Dehradun for CT scan and MRI to know the cause of death, on Sunday. It is learnt that the embassy of Poland has intervened in the matter, expressing strong protest over the transfer of the body to Dehradun causing undue delay in handing over the body his relatives.
The report sent by the team of doctors which conducted the post-mortem examination in Uttarkashi is also intriguing the medical fraternity as it mentions ‘external post-mortem done’. The Chief Medical Officer of Dehradun, Dr YS Thapliyal, said that there is only post-mortem examination of a body and the term "external post-mortem" is new to him. He said that the doctor who conducted the examination at Uttarkashi hospital was called on Monday to Dehradun.
At the time of filing this report the post-mortem examination of the mountaineer's body was being done in Dehradun by Dr SS Chauhan and forensic science expert of the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) Dr Neeraj Kumar.
The Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS) of Uttarakashi district hospital, Dr SD Saklani, said that the body of Chrzanowski was sent to Dehradun as doctors conducting the post-mortem examination termed it necessary for knowing the exact cause of death. He said that the claim that post-mortem examination was not done in Uttarkashi is false.
The District Magistrate of Uttarkashi, Deependra Chaudhary, said that the CMS informed him that the post-mortem examination was done on October 15 and MRI and CT were recommended to know the real cause of death.
Standing outside the mortuary of Doon hospital, J Golamb said that three daughters, wife and parents of Chrzanowski are waiting for his mortal remains for last rites but the authorities are pushing the body from one place to another.
Under the aegis of the Indian Mountaineering Federation five mountaineers from Poland started an expedition to the Shivling peak which is at 6,543 metres above sea level. Chrzanowski and his mate Grzegorz Michal Kukurowski, started climbing the mountain from the less travelled north face of Shivling which is very steep.
However, on October 9, both of them fell ill and headed for the base camp to get help. On October 12 a joint team of SDRF and Air Force started the rescue operation and a day later a team consisting of Garhwal Scouts and Nehru Institute of Mountaineering started trekking to rescue the duo. Unfortunately, Chrzanowski fell into a deep gorge as he was about to be rescued, and died.