Broken fridges leave morgue at reduced capacity
Broken fridges leave morgue at reduced capacity
By Ivy Susanti
JAKARTA (JP): Normally able to accommodate 28 bodies, the
morgue at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, the only
hospital authorized to do postmortem examinations in the capital,
is currently operating at only about one third its capacity, an
official said on Thursday.
Mardiyono, chief of the morgue, said that only 10 of the 28
refrigeration units used to preserve corpses before they are
examined were functioning.
"As a result, we are forced to lay the bodies sent here,
anywhere around the morgue," he told The Jakarta Post.
A good refrigeration system is vital to a morgue. It enables
the morgue to store the bodies, and prevents decomposition before
the postmortem examinations, or before the bodies are collected
by the families of the deceased.
Mardiyono said that without the refrigeration systems the
corpses would quickly decompose.
Unfortunately, the 10 refrigeration units at the morgue that
are still functioning, are not able to bring the temperature down
to freezing, as could be seen by the thermometers, which
registered temperatures between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius.
"A well-operating unit would produce frost, so cold that if we
opened the retractable shelves, the water vapor would spray
outside. It could preserve a corpse for one month," said
Mardiyono.
Due to the poor condition of the refrigeration system, he
called on the public to help finance the refrigeration system
maintenance.
"Please help us. The refrigeration system is badly needed
here. You could contribute either the new units or new machines,"
he said, adding that he made the plea as the government was short
of money, and unable to set aside funds for the procurement of
the new units.
Mardiyono, who has worked at the morgue since 1976, said that
the existing refrigeration units were installed in either 1978,
1985 or 1992 to replace the old ones.
He said that the old units had been in operation since the
construction of the hospital during the Dutch occupation.
In the 1970s Prof. Dr. Rukmono, then chief of pathology in the
anatomy department of the University of Indonesia's School of
Medicine, made some physical improvements to the morgue by
building a waiting room for the families of the deceased, a room
to bathe the dead bodies and a chamber for burial ceremonies, in
addition to installing the new refrigeration units.
Rukmono also ruled that corpses which had already had a
postmortem examination, should be removed within 48 hours.
Mardiyono said, however, that unidentified bodies were usually
kept until they were claimed by their families.
"Sometimes unidentified bodies take quite a long time to be
identified. We usually keep the bodies in the morgue for a
maximum of four days," he said.
The unclaimed bodies are usually buried at Pondok Rangoon
public cemetery in East Jakarta, he said.
He recalled that the three corpses found in the Thousand
Islands in early August were kept in the morgue for about four
months.
The remains were originally believed to be the bodies of some
of the 14 political activists who were kidnapped, and were still
missing.
But relatives of the activists failed to identify any of the
remains.
Mardiyono also said that hundreds of corpses from the May
riots, which were found in burned department stores and other
buildings across the city, were not stored in the refrigeration
units, because the number of bodies far exceeded the units'
capacity.
He said that the morgue does not charge any money for the
refrigeration service.
"We only charge for the equipment used in the burial ceremony,
such as the fee for bathing and wrapping the dead bodies, as we
have to buy these items," he added.