Abuja FMC plans mass burial for unclaimed corpses

The Federal Medical Centre, Abuja has said it plans to conduct mass burial for the eight unclaimed corpses. The hospital’s management expressed worry over the congestion of its mortuary caused by unclaimed corpses in the hospital.

Speaking with our correspondent, the Head of Clinical Services, Dr. Joseph Eziechila said the hospital’s management has gotten a court order, police extract, and cemetery permission to bury the corpses.

“In every institution, there are policies. Once a corpse stays in a morgue for more than eighteen months and no person has come to claim the body, you tag them as unclaimed bodies. In the process of trying to dispose of the corpses, you get a court order and we did that, we got the court authorisation, police extract, you even go to the cemetery to get clearance so that you can dispose of the bodies. We did newspaper publications as well. We’ve done all the processes, you don’t have to bridge the process.

“We have eight corpses, they are all adults. They’re blocking the space, they’re in the morgue for two years and nobody to come and claim the bodies. We have made adverts, radio announcements and nobody is coming to claim them, we can’t leave it like that.”

He lamented that the morgue was congested.

“There is no space unless you pile them like sardines. Every hospital has different sizes of their morgue. We plan mass burial for them though we have not fixed the time for that yet. We may not have medical students demanding it.

“It costs a lot to maintain and power the morgue. If some universities apply, and the bodies are still okay, we will give to them, that is where they get cadavers to learn,” Eziechila said