Residents, patients up in arms over malodorous corpses

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Neighbors and patients at the Tangerang General Hospital have complained about the unbearable stench emanating from the hospital's morgue, whose refrigeration system has been out-of- order for the last six months.

"Whenever the wind blows toward this pavilion, the patients in here cannot stand the smell. We often want to vomit," a female patient in the hospital's Flamboyan pavilion told The Jakarta Post last week.

The middle-aged mother of three said the odor would likely hamper the recovery of patients, who were often unable to sleep or eat because of the smell.

An employee confirmed the morgue's only refrigerator, which was used to store an average of four bodies a day, was not working.

"It's been out-of-order since earlier this year," he said.

According to him, the refrigerator had already been repaired twice by two different companies, but had broken down again within a week of each repair.

He said that since the refrigerator had stopped working, whenever the police sent an unidentified body to the morgue employees laid it out on the floor.

This employee said bodies sent by the police to the morgue generally began to decompose before the police issued burial permits.

Since early this month, the police have sent six unidentified bodies to the morgue.

According to Tangerang Police chief of detectives, Insp. Kustanto, the police issued a burial permit for an unidentified body only after locating family members who could claim the body.

"It's time-consuming finding the families of unidentified bodies. We often have to delay issuing their burial permits," he told the Post.

The director of services at the hospital, Bambang Wisnubroto, admitted that the situation at the morgue had disturbed many patients and nearby residents.

He said that several attempts had been made to remedy the situation, but to no avail.

"We apologize to patients and residents affected by the bad smell," he said on Thursday.

Bambang did say the hospital recently received Rp 800 million from the regency administration to renovate the morgue, including the purchase of a new refrigerator.

"The renovation will begin in August and will be completed in November. But until then we hope the police will issue burial permits as soon as the postmortem exams are completed," he said.