Mix-ups at the morgue are avoidable – Maputo city councillor

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Mix-ups at the morgue are avoidable – Maputo city councillor

7:52 CAT | 25 Oct 2016

Noticias

Nurbai Calú, municipal councillor of Health and Social Welfare in Maputo, has appealed to families to send to the city morgues, people brave and thoughtful enough to carry out preparations for funerals thoroughly, so as to avoid mix-ups that can cause mourners extreme distress.

Her appeal follows another recent case at the Maputo Central Hospital morgue where a family came to finalise preparations for an 11:00 AM burial in Michafutene only to discover that the remains could not be located.

Investigations led to the suspicion that the body had been taken to Manhiça district by another family, confirmed hours later when the body was already being veiled in a church there, about 80 kilometres from the capital.

Faced with the situation, the pastor of the congregation took it upon himself to bring the urn back to Maputo, and the funeral which was to have been held in the morning went ahead in the evening.

This is one episode among many attributed to shortcomings in the identification of bodies by relatives.

Speaking to Noticias, Councillor Calú said that it was difficult to understand how failures such as these happened, because the bodies had labels and records at the morgue and their preparation began with visual confirmation by a loved one, after which the bodies were washed and dressed in the presence of the family.

For Calú, inattention or lack of the courage needed to look at the body properly was the most likely explanation.

Morgues in Maputo register on average one or two mix-ups per month, with Maputo Central Hospital, which takes the bodies of patients who die there, chief among them.

Source: Noticias