COVID-19: Mortuaries overshoot capacity, 500 corpses at AE-FUTHA, Abakaliki

...there’re private mortuary rooms for dignitaries, Mortician

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

As the wind of lockdown to mitigate the spread of coronavirus  permeates across the states of the federation, the mortuary unit of the Alex Ekwueme University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki (AE-FUTHA), Ebomyi State has currently over stretched it’s capacity of 500 bodies.

This is as many states have placed ban on public gatherings, which has  brought about overflow of corpses in morgues, even as the presence of COVID-19 has not stopped people from dying, but has stopped  many families from organizing  befitting burial for their loved deceased ones.

According to one of the mortuary attendants at the AE-FUTHA, it is believed that the state-wide waiver granted by the Ebonyi state government for bereaved families to conduct burials of their dead relations with effect from Thursday, April 9 to April 20. will go a long way to decongest the mortuary and many others in the state.

Corpses in mortuary

The attendant said they carry out  freezing of corpses in turns, due to lack of space, he said they have brought the management of the mortuary to the known, but nothing has been done yet, they know the place has taken more than its 500 capacity, and there is nothing they could since they’re only but employees.

“What we are doing in the meantime is that we no longer accept corpses from outside the hospital. Even at that, this place is already filled up. It is supposed to accommodate 500 corpses, but now it is more than that. What we do is that after freezing one, we bring it down and put another one in the freezing chamber” he said.

In Anambra state, before the lockdown, the state had banned burials and funerals,which also has made many mortuaries to have taken more than their capacity.

At the Heaven’s Gate Mortuary Nnewi, Anambra State, the Chief Mortician, Mr Michael Aneke, stated that contrary to what is obtainable in other places, there is drop in the number of corpse they receive, a measure which may be attributed to their strict observance of rules.

He said, “If any corpse is brought to us here for preservation, we must know the particulars of the dead person, where he or she comes from, what killed the person, whether it was accident or natural death, the type of sickness or illness or disease that killed the person.  We must know all these before we touch the corpse.”

He said they don’t  have any coronavirus infected corpse, that since the outbreak, the number of corpses they receive for preservation has dropped. That they  have 10 private rooms for dignitaries whom their families wouldn’t want them to be kept with others.

“Anyway, since the pandemic started, the rate at which people were bringing corpses here has drastically dropped. We have 10 private rooms and a viewing room.Those private rooms are where deceased monarchs, other traditional rulers and dignitaries whose relations would not like their bodies to be kept with commoners are kept.

“Each private room is meant for one person. Then we have a general storage room where other corpses can be kept. The general storage room can contain up to 50 or 60 corpses,” he said.

At a mortuary at Nanka also in Anambra, the mortuary attendant said they are considering expansion since they have filled up their 80 corpses capacity.

The story is different in most mortuary homes in Imo, Ekiti, Ogun and Abia states  where the mortuaries are over stretched as the corpses in the mortuaries cannot be taken away for burial as a result of the lockdown.

A casket  maker Tunde told nation update that it’s their business that is at the receiving end presently, that mortuary managements complaints  of their mortuaries being over stretched does  not mean their monies are not intact.

“It’s we that make caskets that are suffering now, because people can no longer bury  their dead ones,  no market, even people that placed order are not forthcoming, they are no longer coming to check their jobs, it means all round loss, some of the wood we have bought for caskets may spoil depending on when this will end.

“What it means is that  we have to start treating some of those woods with chemicals which is an additional cost on us.Mortuaries have nothing to lose. Their problem is that their spaces are filled up, which does not translate to  financial loss,” he said.