The ongoing identification process of the Dana Airline plane crash victims got messier today when relatives were asked to identify some previously identified bodies.
The situation resulted in a mild fracas at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) morgue, where the relatives claimed that the bodies had decomposed beyond recognition.
A visibly furious woman, who expressed displeasure with the sudden turn of events, said it was the third time she would be asked to identify her relation's body.
"Give me the body because I can no longer continue to wait," she said, fuming.
"You are asking me to do another identification when I already did one last week. How is that possible when the body is already decomposing? Why were the identified bodies not tagged when we identified them earlier?" Added a relation of Sunday Enuma, one of the victim's of the crash.
With the identification process including further forensic examination expected to tie the bodies to their respective relations, some of the relations expressed unhappiness about the repeated physical identification they are required to do.
According to the affected relations, such repeated physical identification of the bodies would further delay process of claiming the bodies.
Six bodies from the crash have so far been released to their relations, while seven are in the process of getting released, according to a source at the hospital.
However, one of the six bodies that was released at the weekend, has been recalled for proper dental expression, and the relatives were also not pleased about it.
"We've been asked to bring the body back, that the initial dental expression carried out was not properly done. Meanwhile, we've already deposited the body at a private morgue," said a relation.
Meanwhile, the hospital management are getting economical with information on the national tragedy that struck Lagos on June 3, 2010, as journalists have now been barred from the hospital premises.
The hospital's Chief Press Secretary, M. Okojie, who prevented journalists from taking pictures or speaking with the relations, personally saw a Raypower reporter, Remilekun, out of the hospital premises.
A source at the hospital however said that the barring of journalists from activities at the morgue was done to streamline the process of information.
"The Health Commissioner (Jide Idris) will be addressing the press from time to time as events unfold, so that journalists get official information, rather speculation," the source said.
Culled:dailytimesnigeria
No comments:
Post a Comment