DMC mortuary’s air conditioners, freezers out of order for months

Dhaka Medical College mortuary’s air conditioners and freezers used for keeping human corpses awaiting identification, removal for autopsy or disposal by burial have remained out of operation for over two months, leading to decomposition of bodies and stench. 
The situation compelled dissectors and forensic officials work in an unpleasant and unhealthy environment, said forensic physicians on Sunday. 
They warned that working in an environment with decomposed bodies had serious risks of chronic infectious diseases.
DMC forensic department head Sohel Mahmud admitted that three out of the five freezers at the mortuary had remained out of order for two months while all the three air conditioners had also remained nonoperational.
Twenty one unclaimed or unidentified bodies were piled up at the mortuary as of Sunday and most of those bodies had already decomposed, said Babul, a dissector. ‘We are disgusted with the foul smell coming from decomposed bodies,’ he said.
The bodies were lying haphazardly in and around the inoperative freezers and had not been taken away, he said.
Every day around 8-10 bodies are dissected at the morgue and many of which await identification.
Sohel said that the unclaimed bodies were usually buried by welfare organisation Anjuman Mufidul Islam but they had not been taking away the bodies after Eid.
When asked about the delay in repairing or replacing the inoperative air conditioners and freezes, he said that the authorities responsible for it had been informed, but no initiative had been seen yet.
DMC principal Khan Abul Kalam Azad told New Age that they could not repair or replace any equipment utilising college’s resources as the college had no such authority. 
‘We wrote to health engineering department two months ago to take measures,’ he said, adding that the condition posed serious health risks to doctors, dissectors and people around decomposing bodies.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net