Regional News of Thursday, 4 June 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Missing accident body: Police is in charge and not our morgue - Dormaa Presby Hospital

Dormaa Presby Hospital  -   Photo captured by Johnson Dei-Kusi Dormaa Presby Hospital - Photo captured by Johnson Dei-Kusi

General Manager of Dormaa Presby Hospital, Rev. Dr. Isaac Appiah, has denied reports that his outfit is to be blamed for a missing corpse at the hospital's mortuary.

On Wednesday, June 3, 2020, Rainbowradioonline.com, reported that a family at Dormaa Ahenkro was after the Dormaa mortuary over the disappearance of their deceased relative.

The body, together with one other, were deposited at the morgue by the Dormaa Police after a car accident. However, days after the bodies were deposited in the hospital, the family of one of the deceased claimed the body released to them was not that of their late relative, Wofa Atta.

Speaking to GhanaWeb about the issue, Rev Appiah explained that the case is between two families and the Police as the intermediary.

He explained, his outfit was only mandated to allow family members have access to the bodies for identification with escorts from the Police.

He added that the hospital only had the mandate to release the dead bodies to the families after both families have fully identified their relatives

"The two bodies were brought to the hospital on Sunday (May 24, 2020). Because Monday was a holiday, one of the families came to the morgue on Tuesday(May 26) to identify their body with police officers.

Two members from the family of Wofa Atta also came later to view the remaining body and they confirmed that was their body. And for that matter, the morgue people also registered them, gave that body the mortuary tag..."

He said the mishap happened because representatives of the two families failed to identify their own body when they reported to the morgue for viewing and identification.

"So last week Friday morning, the first family came back for their body after inspection...Then yesterday, they were coming for the body, when the body was removed for them, the other family members said it wasn't theirs. But meanwhile, it is the body that Friday, they came to identify. The records are there. So what happened is that those who came to identify their body couldn't identify their own body. And those who came earlier was may be given a body which does not belong to them. But for us as a hospital, we don't even come into the case. Because they are dealing with the Police."

He reiterated that the case was handed over to the Police to settle since they brought the accident bodies to the morgue.

"When they came yesterday, we called the Police and handed everything to the Police. Because we made them understand that it is between them and the Police and not us. Because the body was brought by the Police, so we advised them to go the Police... So that if anything at all, the Police can issue directive so that some of the Police officers can go to where they buried the first body to cross-check.", he told GhanaWeb in the exclusive interview.

Meanwhile, the Police have met the two families to resolve the issue.