Venezuelan hospital tells families to remove bodies of relatives from morgue because they could ROT due to power outages
- San Cristóbal Central Hospital officials are asking families in San Cristóbal, Venezuela, to remove the bodies of their loved ones for burial
- Staffers with the hospital’s forensic team fear the bodies could decompose due to the electrical outages that have besieged the country’s hospital system
- The hospital currently is holding nine bodies – all males – at its morgue
- Ongoing crisis in Venezuela has dealt a huge blow to the South American nation’s hospitals, which have had to turn away patients due to lack of electricity
A hospital in western Venezuela is asking family members to promptly claim the bodies of their deceased loved ones or risk having them buried in unmarked graves due to the country’s unstable power grid.
On Monday, officials at San Cristóbal Central Hospital said they feared the bodies could rot if they are not removed in time from the mortuary refrigerators.
According to Venezuelan outlet La Nación, the forensic team at the Pathological Anatomy Room at San Cristóbal Central Hospital was still in possession of nine bodies, all males, who were positively identified.
Officials at San Cristóbal Central Hospital (pictured) in western Venezuela are asking family members to promptly claim the bodies of their deceased loved ones before they are buried in unmarked graves. The lack of sufficient electricity at the hospital morgue could cause the bodies to decompose
Administrators at the medical facility, which is located in the state of Táchira, have kept three of the bodies for some time for clinical study purposes.
The other six bodies were either victims of violent attacks or forensic investigations.
The newspaper also reported that due to overcrowding at the San Cristóbal Central Hospital, the staffers feared the decomposing bodies could cause pose a threat to hospital employees and visitors.
On several occasion over the first five months, the Venezuelan Public Ministry has given the hospital full authorization to bury unclaimed bodies at unmarked graves in cemeteries.
Forensic staffers at a hospital in San Cristóbal, Venezuela, fear that bodies at the morgue could rot if they are not removed promptly. Pictured above are forensic officers removing the remains of a corpse at San Cristóbal Central Hospital
Concerned forensic staffers hope the bodies can be properly buried out of respect for their religious beliefs.
The oil-rich embattled South American nation has been mired in a series of power outages that has destabilized its hospital system, forcing some facilities to turn away patients.
The ongoing economic crisis in Venezuela, which has dealt a severe blow to its healthcare system, has led to an exodus of more than 3 million Venezuelans, most of whom have fled to neighboring South American countries.
The lack of electricity in many of Venezuela’s hospitals had caused a series of deaths – particularly among hospitalized children – that has led to a finger-pointing battle between the Nicolas Maduro regime and interim president Juan Guaido.