Homa Bay referral hospital to dispose 12 unclaimed bodies
A court in Homa Bay has granted the county teaching and referral hospital permission to dispose of 12 unclaimed bodies for the hospital to save money.
Burying the corpses will also promote a clean environment within the hospital while creating space for more corpses at the mortuary.
The order allowing the devolved unit to bury the bodies was issued by the court after the hospital’s public health officer in charge of sanitation Nancy Ooko made an application to the court asking for permission to get rid of the corpses.
“There is an urgent need to obtain the above orders since the bodies have overstretched the mortuary facility which has a limited capacity of 22 bodies thus a need to create space to accommodate more deserving cases,” Ms Ooko wrote in her application.
Following the orders, a team of public health officers will be assigned to take the deceased to a public cemetery at the outskirts of Homa Bay town where they will be buried in a mass grave.
Hospital acting chief executive officer Vincent Oduor said the exercise will take place after two weeks to give members of the public a chance to look at the bodies and see if they belong to any of their lost relatives.
“Some families might have reported missing kin. It is just proper to check if they could be among the dead at our morgue before we bury them,” he said.
Disposing the corpses will help the hospital save some cash.
According to Dr Oduor, the health facility spends at least Sh 1000 to keep each body everyday, meaning the health facility uses at least Sh 1200 daily to keep all the unclaimed corpses.
He said the money is spent on buying chemicals which are meant to preserve corpses and make them unable to decompose.
“Consumables including chemicals are bought and used on bodies yet we do not know who their kins are. That is why we sought for a court order to take them out of the hospital,” Dr Oduor said.
Some of the bodies have been at the hospital for up to six months with no one claiming them.
The mortuary at the county referral hospital can hold 22 bodies if all of them are kept in individual storage compartments.
There are currently 15 bodies at the mortuary including the 12 which have not been identified.
But sometimes the number can be more than storage capacity forcing staff at the hospital to pile corpses on top of others.
This makes some families uncomfortable when viewing the bodies of their relatives.
Among the 12 unidentified bodies, five are from Rangwe, four from Rachuonyo North, one from Homa Bay and two from Mbita.
Dr Odero said they were taken to the mortuary on diverse days and all of them involved police case.
“Some were victims of accidents while others died from other factors. One of the bodies is of someone who drowned,” the medic said.
Besides creating space, getting rid of the bodies will enable people around the mortuary to breathe fresh air.
When bodies decompose, they produce a pungent smell.
Dr Oduor said burying the bodies will ensure there is fresh air within the hospital.
“Having the corpses here for long will most likely compromise the clean environment around the hospital,” he said.
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