Latest update April 17th, 2025 8:39 PM
Bodies decompose at N/A Hospital mortuary after freezer goes down – CEO, Health Director dodge media
Several bodies including an infant’s corpse decayed at the New Amsterdam Hospital Mortuary after the facility’s freezer went down. This revelation was made by a relative of one of the deceased.
Seepaul Ramlochan, brother of one of the deceased
Seepaul Ramlochan told this publication that his brother Rabindranauth Ramnarace who died on the 31st December 2018 and whose body was being kept at the hospital’s mortuary, was handed over to him in a decomposing state. The furious man told reporters outside the hospital that he saw his brother’s corpse on the 11th January 2019 and his body was still fresh.
According to him, “I ask them if I can remove the body and they refuse. On the 14th, when I came back to the mortuary, I keep asking the CEO but she keep refusing me. I ask Mr. Jevaughn (Stephen) and he refused, they say the dead got to do PM. I tell them that is not a problem, but I know to myself that the dead can go any mortuary and still get a PM done”.
Ramlochan stated that when he saw the body then, it was already decomposed. He stated that the hospital eventually moved the body to the Arokium Mortuary. “I didn’t know they didn’t do PM. When they call me, they tell me that they are not doing a PM anymore and that I could take the dead and bury it. Me brother de already spoil bad, so I bury the body on Thursday”.
The man disclosed that other persons who were there at the mortuary saw their relatives’ remains decomposed as well, “it had plenty more body in the mortuary that decompose, it had a baby in deh that melt down till they had to take a spade and dig up the remains”. He stressed, “this is overbearing what happen here at the hospital”.
The New Amsterdam Hospital
When reporters visited the office of the CEO of the hospital, the doors were closed and her secretary stated that she was in a meeting. Contact numbers were left but she did not call Kaieteur News. A visit to the Director of Regional Health Services Jevaughn Stephen yesterday also was unsuccessful, since he instructed his secretary to inform the media to “make contact with the CEO” in relation to the issue.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Regional Health Committee in Berbice, Zamal Hussain, stated that he too was referred to the CEO for a comment on the issue by the Director. He disclosed that he was informed that several bodies were “spoilt” at the mortuary; this he noted was due to negligence.
“I was told that somebody was also decomposed at the Skeldon Hospital Mortuary and so this is the incompetence that we are seeing. We have seen the government install a new CEO, but the hospital is becoming worse. The former CEO has some amount of control, but the last three weeks there has been a rapid decline”.
Hussain said that he has since requested an emergency meeting with Stephen to discuss the pending issues. He stressed, “because the people of Region 6 are suffering and we are spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars and we can’t get it right”. He added that, “nobody is paying attention, everybody is busy and we are getting a failed system”.
Kaieteur News also understands that there is an absence of strips for patients with diabetes.
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