A 28-year-old Covid patient admitted to the Netaji Subhas TB Sanatorium was found alive after a death certificate was issued in his name and his family summoned by hospital authorities for his last rites on Friday.

On Thursday, the youth from Hijuli village in Ranaghat had been admitted to the high dependency unit of the Kalyani Covid hospital. He was declared “dead” on Friday morning.

The death certificate said the youth died of “severe acute respiratory distress syndrome, encephalopathy, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension, Covid-19 pneumonia”. The youth’s father was informed about the “death”.

“A nurse called me, asking me to go to the hospital to identify the body and sign the no-objection certificate for disposal of the body and receive the death certificate. My wife and I went to hospital,” said the 60-year-old father.

After the couple got the death certificate on Friday evening, they were told to wait for the corpse handler (dom) to show the body of their son. But when the dom brought the body, the couple said it was not their son. The man went back to the ward and called out the name of the patient. The youth, whom the hospital authorities had declared dead, responded, said the parents.

Shocked, the parents charged hospital authorities with “negligence” and left with their son, who was critical.

Nadia’s chief medical officer Aparesh Bandopadhyay acknowledged the “mistake” and said there was another patient with the same name that led to the mix-up. He refused to say if both the patients’ fathers had the same names and addresses.

SDO Kalyani Hirak Mondal said: “I have heard about the incident and sought a report from the CMOH.”