Vadodara: In an important move for disaster response and forensic science, Gotri Medical College and Hospital in Vadodara has started Gujarat’s first-ever mobile post-mortem and cold storage facility. The new unit is designed to handle mass casualty events such as plane crashes, natural disasters, or accidents in remote areas, where transporting bodies to a hospital may not be feasible.
The mobile facility, housed in a specially built container, serves as a fully operational post-mortem unit that can be transported directly to the site of a disaster. It includes advanced forensic infrastructure and cold storage capacity for up to five bodies. The ability to perform autopsies on-site allows for quicker identification, evidence preservation, and respectful handling of human remains in high-pressure situations.
This innovation comes in response to updated guidelines from the National Medical Commission (NMC), which emphasize the need for separate post-mortem arrangements in cases involving decomposed bodies. Such cases often pose serious challenges in traditional hospital environments due to hygiene concerns and odor. The Gotri mobile unit addresses this issue directly, creating a controlled, sanitary space for examinations while also minimizing distress to staff and the public.
Gotri Hospital officials highlighted that this is the first such facility of its kind in Gujarat. Superintendent Dr. Anup Chandani explained that the unit was built with both emergency response and long-term forensic needs in mind. He emphasized that decomposed remains, in particular, often require specialized handling and that this system would reduce public exposure to odor and contamination risks while allowing for thorough and respectful forensic analysis.
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