The Abuja Federal Medical Centre has disclosed plans to give mass burial to some unclaimed corpses who have been in their custody for over two years now to decongest the facility.
This was disclosed to the media by the hospital’s management who said the hospital has gotten a court order, police extract and cemetery permission to bury the corpses.
The Head of Clinical Services, Dr Joseph Eziechila, said any corpse that stays in a morgue for more than eighteen months without being claimed by anyone is identified as an unclaimed boody.
He explained the decision was made after fruitless efforts by the hospital to announce to the public if relatives might come to claim them, adding that the management had placed adverts on radio and newspaper, but there was no response.
But eventhough they plan a mass burial for them, a date hasn’t been fixed because medical students can still apply for them, noting that the bodies are still ok if any university wants to apply for them.
“In every institution, there are policies. Once a corpse stays in a morgue for more than eighteen months and no person has come to claim the body, you tag them as unclaimed bodies. In the process of trying to dispose of the corpses, you get a court order and we did that, we got the court authorisation, police extract, and you even go to the cemetery to get clearance so that you can dispose of the bodies. We did newspaper publications as well. We’ve done all the processes, you don’t have to bridge the process.
“We have eight corpses, they are all adults. They’re blocking the space, they’re in the morgue for two years and nobody to come and claim the bodies. We have made adverts, and radio announcements and nobody is coming to claim them, we can’t leave it like that.
“There is no space unless you pile them like sardines. Every hospital has different sizes of their morgue.
“We plan mass burial for them though we have not fixed the time for that yet. We may not have medical students demanding it.
“It costs a lot to maintain and power the morgue. If some universities apply, and the bodies are still okay, we will give to them, that is where they get cadavers to learn,” he added.
