By Bida Elly David
The Department of the corpse keeping segment(Mortuary) at the Juba Teaching Hospital has disclosed that over seventy (60) corpses have been hanging up in the mortuary as relatives to the departed souls couldn’t turn up to remove them for burial.
The mortuary at the Juba Teaching hospital is accommodating many corpses being brought around most of the areas within Juba followed by Al-Giyada Military hospital which also subordinates it.
Lupai Anthony, the Medical Director at the Juba Teaching Hospital revealed to the media recently that most of the corpses that are stuck at the hospital mortuary are due to poor turn up of their relatives.
He stated that abrupt deaths which happened out of the knowledge of the relatives of the deceased are also contributing to long stay of corpses in the hospitals.
“We have more than seventy corpses hanging inside the mortuary without relatives or owners turning up to pick them for burials. Some of the reasons as to why most corpses remain hanging in the hospital was due to sudden deaths such as emergency accidents that transpire either at night time making it difficult for relatives to turn up” Lupai underlined.
Furthermore, Lupai added that some relatives normally don’t turn up due to negligence knowing very well their responsibly towards their corpses.
He said most cases of unclaimed corpses laying at the Juba Teaching Hospital mortuary were bodies that were reportedly brought by policemen or good Samaritans to the hospital mortuary.
“Police and good Samaritans in most cases are the ones helping in bringing dead bodies with unidentified relatives to the hospitals and after transporting, it takes time for the relatives to appear while the bodies started decomposing’’ he said.
Lupai reiterated that the corpses have reached to the extent they pose difficulties in burial due to the long stay and urged those in search of their missing or dead relatives to identify them from the hospital to empty space.
“I am calling on those having dead bodies in the hospital to come and pick them up while those who are ignorant of their lost ones should also come and cross check from the hospital to give a space’’ he said.
Lupai, however, criticized those who take bodies to the hospital and disperse for good giving the challenge and burden to the mortuary department.
“There are about sixty unclaimed bodies because the relatives have not come to claim for them and they are now in the mortuary and this is a challenge to the hospital’’ the Medical Director emphasized.
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