Nine bodies left unclaimed at Mt Hope

There are now nine unclaimed bodies at the Mortuary Department. Some have been housed in the chiller for more than two months and have started to decompose and workers have had to suffer the unbearable stench.

An attendant told Newsday he tried to find out about the corpses and learnt that doctors had issued death certificates to relatives who never visited the mortuary to claim the bodies. No autopsies have reportedly been carried out on the corpses.

Newsday was told one man who was warded at the Sangre Grande Hospital was on March 15, transferred to the EWMSC, where he subsequently died. His body has never been claimed by relatives. “That is disrespect. He was at Sangre Grande Hospital and nobody went to check on him,” an attendant said.

The refrigerator can accommodate 30 bodies and corpses are brought to the mortuary daily. Yesterday, ten post-mortems were done. The attendant said the EWMSC has to house corpses coming in from the east-west corridor.

These include patients who died in the wards, those brought in by the Emergency Health Service and those who came from the Adult Priority Care Facility. The attendant also chided the Police Service for not following up on these unclaimed bodies.

He said there was a man who was knocked down while crossing the Churchill Roosevelt Highway. Arouca police are investigating the case but the attendant said the police never came back for the autopsy.

Last year, Newsday highlighted the case of a body which was at the mortuary for two years until the police moved it to the Forensic Science Centre. The attendant said money should not be a reason for abandoning a relative.

“Just come in and talk to the mortuary staff. We will contact the Friendly Society and they will bury the body.

“The Government made provisions for that. Come and tell us something ... do not be ashamed.”

He said the number of bodies accumulating was causing problems in other areas.

The refrigerator cannot be cleaned and engineers have refused to service the equipment.

The attendant added, “We are giving people 21 days to come forward and claim the bodies or else we are going to the Friendly Society to have these bodies buried.”

The unclaimed bodies have been identified by mortuary attendants as Adolphus Cooper who died on January 31; Gopaulchan Sookroa who died on February 20; Shakoor Hosein who died on March 20; a man named “Isaac” who died on March 21; Carol Ramoutar who died on April 1; Arnold Perouza who died on April 19 and Ruthven Pierre who died on April 20 .