Mercy Angels, a wing of the Mercy Mission, has earned prestige for doing what remaining were afraid of undertaking in these tough times.
The NGO that had come into existence within the wake of its parent company engaging itself in combating hunger in Bengaluru, is credited with performing final rites of 65 of the 67 people whose demises have been caused because of COVID-19-19 in this city until last Sun.
Apart from, it’s also ferried multiple dozens of corpses of non-COVID sufferers to city’s cemeteries & the crematoria.
Attached to the Hazrath Bismillah Shah (HBS) Hospital (3) within the City’s Cantonment region, the Mercy Angels have tied up with City’s municipal body BBMP, to take (2) bodies of those who passed away consequent to COVID-19-related affliction in city’s hospitals.
Even though the dread of infection maintains far away even the closest of kin from that COVID-19 afflicted sufferers, the six-member tandem headed by social worker Mr. Mehdi Kaleem has shouldered the onerous task of organizing the final rites of the mortal remains during this last 3 mos.
Supervised by HBS Director Dr. Taha Mateen, the Mercy Angels has tied up with BBMP that speedily clarifies the papers for discharge of corpses from that mortuaries. The six-member tandem gears up by donning the PPE shortly after a call is got from that Ambulance 108 Service.
The corpses are wrapped in 3 protective layers & afterwards ferried to either the crematorium (or) the graveyard according to the faith of the demised.
Kaleem is assisted by Dr. Shariq Rafeeq, Ayub Jaffer Khan (both 43); B. S. Veeresh, 45; Sheikh Imran, 35; Shabbir, 30; Shah Imdad Ali nicknamed Chhotu, 27. The crematoria that would’ve got the intimation from that BBMP, would keep the trolley prepared in the ramp for the corpse to be rolled into the furnace.
From, no relatives are permitted to touch (or) watch the demised, the scene is grim, with near & dear ones watching the overall operation from a gap with both grief & fear writ huge on their own faces. Although, in some of the instances, the tandem has even observed conspicuous crunch of the next of the kin because of fear of infection.
As for the corpses of Muslim sufferers, procedural procedures are a bit various. From the conventional bath can’t be played, tayammum ((or) waving of mud around the face & hands) is finished before wrapping the body into protective covers.
The graves are dug as many as 10 ft deep & the body is lowered into the grave by holding the corners of a long sheet of cloth by 4 people. Even the sheets are positioned over the body. As for the funeral prayers, the body is kept in a gap before the imam.
The Mercy Angels tandem has won wide appreciation & appreciation of the families who have been gripped with fear & grief in handling a task that necessitated person involvement with attendant risks.
Kaleem states multiple families have offered service charges, however they’ve declined to accept any. The PPEs & sanitisers are given by this civic officials & the ambulance, be it from that 108 (or) the HBS’s own, have to be stationed for sanitization for 16 hours after every such operation.