The Port Kaituma mortuary, which staff had discovered to be dysfunctional on 23rd September, 2023 is now operational and functional, Region One Chairman Brentnol Ashley has said.
In a telephone interview with this newspaper, Ashley explained that the mortuary’s dysfunction was discovered when staff, who were going to prepare a body for a funeral, realized that another two bodies were in a state of decomposition. According to him, three bodies were affected.
He disclosed that the other two bodies that were discovered in a state of decomposition had been lodged at the morgue by the police in excess of a month. The circumstances surrounding those deaths, he said, were a police matter and the bodies were awaiting post-mortem examinations.
However, once they were discovered in that state, the two bodies were buried by the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) the same day. The third decomposing body was also buried the same day, but by relatives.
When asked how long the facility had not been functional, Ashley was unable to say. However, he said that there is a system in the health sector in the region where the environment health department is supposed to provide daily reports on such facilities. Since no one knew that the morgue was not working until the discovery by staff, he said the reporting mechanism by those in charge has to be optimized. He emphasized that routine checks would henceforth be made on the status of the mortuary to prevent a recurrence.
