Before their very eyes lay the body of a 60-year-old British man who was supposed to have disappeared from the morgue at Nicosia General Hospital, prompting a mobilization of government agencies.
Chaos
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The alleged disappearance, which was revealed by F, was reported yesterday to the Latsia police station by a funeral home employee, who had gone to the morgue to collect the body so it could be returned to the United Kingdom. To everyone’s surprise, the body was missing, and the police immediately launched a search to locate it, but to no avail, as there was no person with that name in the morgue’s storage rooms.
Finally, the next morning, after a more thorough search of the morgue’s freezer, the body was located through identification carried out… with the help of the deceased’s passport.
As it turned out, the body had not disappeared after all. The macabre mistake stemmed from the fact that the staff had mixed up the bodies and attached a tag with a different name to this particular one.
That name was written on the tag attached to the body of another British national, which had been received by the morgue a few days earlier.
“The body was in the room, but the correct name was not placed next to it.” Dimitris Konstantinou, Press Officer, Ministry of Health
The investigation revealed that the error, which was initially characterized as an oversight, was made by a mortician who failed to register the body as required by procedure; a disciplinary investigation is expected to be ordered against him.
“What happened should not have happened; it was a serious mistake.” Dimitris Konstantinou, Press Officer, Ministry of Health
The unfortunate British man had suffered a heart attack and passed away on September 9 at Paphos Airport while disembarking from the plane. The body had been transferred to Nicosia General Hospital for an autopsy and remained there until arrangements for its repatriation were finalized.
Chaos in the Morgues
This incident highlights the chaos surrounding the transport of bodies to Nicosia from other cities, where autopsies have not been performed for months. This latest incident confirms the alarming findings documented in the Audit Office’s report, which was released just one month ago.
“One of our findings was the risk of incorrect identification of remains, which creates the risk of difficulty in locating them when necessary.” Giota Stylianou, Press Spokesperson for the Audit Office
“At the Ministry of Health, we must establish internal procedures to ensure that such an incident does not recur in the future.” Dimitris Konstantinou, Press Officer, Ministry of Health
Amendments to the legislation aimed at modernizing the Forensic Medicine Service are expected to provide a partial solution to the problem.
See the report by Christoforos Nestoros
