Epidemic Looms As Abandoned Corpses Litter Mortuaries

A mortuary in Nigeria

Like in several other health facilities across the country, the Saint Gerald Catholic Hospital mortuary situated in Kaduna State is littered with abandoned corpses as the mortician, Mr. Thomas Williams, said unclaimed corpses had become their most critical problem at the moment, even as other teething problems exist.

He said among other issues, the facility has faced a high cost of chemicals used for embalmment and that as much as several efforts were made to contact the relations of the abandoned corpses to evacuate them, it had not yielded any positive result.

It is an obvious fact that the poor condition of morgues in the country has become a major source of worry to many Nigerians. According to analysts, as far as can be noticed, an effort by government and private owners of the health facilities to improve their dampen condition have not risen to be commendable.

It is said that not to be healthy, is one of the few sins that modern society is willing to recognise and condemn. Perhaps, it is for this reason that at every opportunity and hence health is wealth, the sanity of ensuring adequate healthcare should be a major priority of all and sundry.

To understand the myth and other challenges that goes with operations of morgues in the country, it is imperative to observe that for other reasons, mortuaries are often found to be situated at very obscure ends within hospital environment.

Our correspondents who visited some mortuaries observed that apart from the facility located at the blurred corners of the hospitals, the stench that is offensive pollute the place, however, indicating clearly the  unhealthy nature of it.

Obviously, the mortuary is a lonely place and the building majorly house dead bodies while the mortician who takes care of the corpses, also maintain and discharge them.

The mortuaries, according to the visits, apparently depict a spirit filled place where daily activities of life are noticed to be carried out on low-key.The doors of the buildings are constantly shut and in most cases, visitors are not allowed to hover around or gain easy access to the place, unless permitted.

It was further observed that the morgues are not always tidy. Many of them have become a shadow of themselves. They are deplorable and with a high level of infrastructural decay, begging for urgent resuscitation. As some of the mortuaries are overgrown with weed, others are simply abandoned.

In any case, the structures of the hospital mortuaries visited were generally not in good condition. The littered unclaimed corpses pollute the environment which portends high risk of varied health hazards.

It will be recalled that the Calabar General Hospital had buried over 100 corpses for lack of space.Apart from accident victims, the bulk of corpses were abandoned by dubious relatives who provided fake contact addresses after depositing the dead bodies, it was learned.

A private mortician operating in Ikom Local Government Area of the state, Mr. Emeka Ben-Chima, decried the health risk constituted by the high number of corpses abandoned in mortuaries across the state.

Ben-Chima said over 300 corpses had been left unclaimed in his mortuary and some for several years with others deposited as far back as 2010.

Most of the mortuaries in Jos, the Plateau state capital, it was gathered were in dilapidated state and are begging for revamp.Although there are only few cases of unclaimed  corpses. However, some of the morticians who spoke on condition of anonymity  complained of inadequate maintenance by the various management of the mortuaries.

A visit to Plateau specialist hospital mortuary, JUTH, OLA, Bingham University Teaching Hospital is popularly known as Jankwano, and the Vom Christian Hospital, it was found that the mortuary facilities are faced with a serious infrastructural deficit.

According to the mortician (name withheld), between 2001, 2008 and 2014, there was no day that passed without bomb blast either in Churches or market places. There was also incessant Fulani invasion. This, he said left all the mortuaries in Jos overwhelmed as corpses were littered in the morgues.

“The Dogo Nahauwa massacre which left over 500 people dead in 2009 can not be forgotten in a hurry. During this period, all the mortuaries in Jos were overwhelmed as corpses littered the morgues of  some hospitals  in the state. The odor that came from the corpses  that were yet to be claimed by relations was not pleasant. People kept a distance while those who could not avoid the terrible stench cover their nostrils. The corpses were not claimed by relations because they were burnt and mutilated beyond recognition.Thank God that today, peace has gradually return to the Tin city ,” he said.

In Kogi state, checks round some mortuaries presented gory and dilapidated outlook as the structures have become old. A heap of abandoned corpses was also sighted by our reporter.

At the Ankuri hospital, a privately owned health facility, high rate of abandoned corpses is one major challenge. Most of the accident victims along the highways that linked Lokoja, are deposited at the Ankuri morgue. The number of abandoned corpses has outweighed what the morgue can accommodate and all cry by the management has seemingly fallen on deaf ears.

According to Jibrin Sule, a mortician at the Ankuri hospital, those that deposited the corpses usually leave with a promise to be back but afterward, fail to turn up. Also, a mortician in the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Lokoja has confirmed the deplorable condition of the mortuary.

“The condition is bad that a senior nurse of the hospital had died but her corpse was rather deposited at the specialist hospital in Lokoja. A cousin to one of the senior doctors had died, and his corpse was taken away from the hospital because the mortuary is not in good shape.”

The situation of morgues in Kaduna state is not any different. A visit to few mortuaries within Kaduna metropolis showed that though there is serious effort to ensure proper maintenance.

At the Barau Dikko specialist hospital, the mortician who simply gave his name as David said he has no authority to speak. He however, confirmed that there were unclaimed corpses in the hospital. Meanwhile, some of the challenges identified by morticians in Kaduna  include high cost of chemicals for embalmment, cases of abandoned and unclaimed corpses, as well as epileptic power supply.

An environmental expert, Abiola Bashorun who is the Managing Director of ZL Global Alliance said ensuring a clean environment provides adequate healthcare and reduces the risk of people being contracted with varied diseases. He said there was a need for the mortuaries to be properly maintained.

Be that as it may, the condition of mortuaries in the country is one critical area relevant authorities must urgently rise to improve. Ofcourse, if the promises of the ‘change’ administration to improve health and ensure environmental sanitation is anything to go by, it is left to be seen if at all, words can be matched with actions to make life worth living for the ordinary citizenry.