Virtual Autopsy used in Comedian Raju Srivastava's postmortem, says AIIMS Forensic Chief

New Delhi: The 58-year-old comedian Raju Srivastava succumbed to death on Wednesday after suffering for more than 40 days at the intensive care unit (ICU) of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The postmortem of comedian Raju Srivastava was performed using a novel technique — virtual autopsy — devoid of dissections, AIIMS forensic department head Dr. Sudhir Gupta said.

Virtual autopsy, done with the help of high-tech digital X-rays and CT scans, is less time-consuming compared to the traditional postmortem and is non-invasive, allowing the body to be released for cremation or burial sooner, Gupta said.

When asked why an autopsy had to be done in this case, he said, "In the very beginning when he was brought to the AIIMS casualty, he was not in his senses and a clear history of falls during running on a treadmill could not be explained properly.

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"That's a reason it had become a medico-legal case, and in such type of cases police opt for postmortem if the person dies." The traditional surgery during autopsy is a little bit of pain-giving to the aggrieved family, Gupta said, adding that AIIMS Delhi is the only institute in Southeast Asia that has been doing virtual autopsy for the last two years.

"The radiological examination can detect fractures and blood clots invisible to the naked eye. Often there are concealed fractures and injuries which are difficult to spot, PTI reports.

"With the help of virtual autopsy, even smaller fractures like hairline or chip fracture in bones along with bleeding which are signs of antemortem injuries, can be detected, and they can also be documented in the form of X-ray films. These X-ray plates have complete legal evidential value," said Gupta.

The virtual autopsy started in India in 2020. Informing the Rajya Sabha about it in 2019, the then Union health minister Harsh Vardhan had said, "family members of the deceased feel uncomfortable with the traditional way of postmortem. Also, a virtual autopsy will be cost and time effective as it will take only 30 minutes to complete as against 2.5 hours taken normally."

AIIMS was allocated Rs 5 crore for this project. AIIMS conducts close to 3,000 autopsies annually, and depending on the case's complexity, a postmortem can take up to 3 days, TOI reports.

AIIMS Delhi is the only institute in Southeast Asia that has been doing virtual autopsies for the last two years.

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