A patient, admitted to a city hospital for a hernia operation, died Friday after he fell down from his bed, hospital sources said here. A post-mortem examination has been ordered to ascertain the cause of death.

The 64-year-old man, admitted to the SSKM Hospital a few days back, underwent the operation Thursday. After having his lunch Friday, he was resting when he suddenly fell from the bed. When the nurses picked him up, he was already dead.

'The patient fell from his bed and when he was picked up by the nurses he was already dead. But the question is that no one can just die falling off from the bed. His body will be sent for post-mortem,' a senior health official of SSKM hospital said on condition of anonymity.