In what would go down as a really shocking discovery, Mortuary
attendants at the Bomadi General Hospital, in Bomadi Local Government
Area, Delta State, have been seen stacking corpses on improvised wooden
platforms after embalmment and leaving them there for several days even
when it rains.
According to Vanguard, this unorthodox arrangement is due to
insufficient space to preserve the corpses in the hospital’s overflowing
mortuary.
Patients at the hospital have expressed disgust at the dilapidated
condition of the health-care facility plagued by rats and mosquitoes,
which has increased the fear of Lassa fever and Zika virus in the
riverside community.
When reporters visited the morgue, they saw embalmed corpses covered with blankets and abandoned outside.
Workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were under
pressure on daily basis because of the challenges faced by patients
while the Doctors on duty refused to make any comment in regard to the
situation.
A lawyer and human rights activist, E.U Opukiri, whose wife was on admission, narrated his experience:
“I am a barrister of nine years in the bar, I came to this
hospital because of the health of my wife and my experiences here in
these two days are pathetic. There was no electricity and water in the
hospital premises, a state government hospital for that matter. Corpses
are stacked outside the morgue.
“In the night when the rechargeable lamp we were using went
off, rats came out in large numbers and spread everywhere. Some of them
came specifically for the bread I bought for my wife, dragging it with
me.
“Out of fear, I took the bread and made it a pillow at the
head-side of the bed. I was, however, uncomfortable with it because of
its shape and so I decided to put it in a cupboard-like shelf there.
When I opened the shelf, I saw that it was a haven for rats. There were
so many rats that I became afraid being aware of the prevalent Lassa
fever caused by rats. We could not sleep at night these two days we were
there,” he said.
Opukiri said further: “Again, the hospital morgue too is an eye
sore; our revered and deceased parents are dried right outside in the
sun like Bonga fish, which is right there (pointing to the morgue).
Therefore, I want government to intervene in this health facility
immediately.
“As a matter of fact, I can categorically tell you that there
is no water in this hospital. All the water facilities are dilapidated,
which you can see for yourself. I had to go out of the hospital’s
premises in the night to the riverside to fetch water for my wife.”
Leader of Bomadi Legislative Assembly, Hon Bekes Tonprebofa, who
was a patient in the hospital, last year, complained about the state of
the facilities and appealed to the state government to do the needful in
the hospital.
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