Latest news with #morgue
CBC
5 days ago
- Health
- CBC
St. John's morgue octuples its storage capacity with new facility
New Ron Johnson doesn't believe unclaimed bodies will be problem again Newfoundland and Labrador has vastly increased the number of bodies it can store in a new morgue facility in St. John's, say health authority officials. Daniel Parsons, senior director of provincial capital planning and engineering with Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services, said this new facility consists of two fridge units and two freezer units, which is located off a hallway in the parking garage of the Janeway Children's Hospital. He said the original morgue facility was constructed in the 1970s and had a capacity of 12 bodies. The new facility can store 96 bodies. "What we've done here is significantly increased our capacity," he told reporters on Friday during a tour of the facility. Ron Johnson, chief operating officer of the health authority's eastern-urban zone, said having this expanded facility is a boon, including for those who work there, but it's also a matter of "perception." "We wanted to ensure that … people's bodies and families and others were dealt with in a very professional way. In a very caring way and empathetic way," said Johnson. "So I think this new facility does that." Johnson said the new facility came online in early June. Corey Murray, senior director of pathology and laboratory medicine, said the new space is ergonomically designed and is safer for staff. "The older space again was very confined. We had a very limited capacity. So it was difficult at times to be retrieving a decedent, either for the funeral home or for autopsy services," said Murray. Unclaimed bodies won't 'pile up' CBC News first reported 28 bodies were being stored in freezer units outside of the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's due to a lack of space in the morgue in March 2024. The morgue doubles as the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The freezers were later relocated to the hospital parking garage — where the new, expanded morgue has been constructed. The provincial government amended legislation, which was filed on Dec. 24 and came into effect on Jan. 1, that empowered the health authority to bury unclaimed remains after two weeks of searching for next of kin and then five days after the identity of the person is posted online on a dedicated website. Between legislation and the expanded facility, Johnson said he doesn't anticipate they will have to tackle a growing number of unclaimed remains again. However, he said there may be other reasons they would need more storage, like a "mass event" that causes numerous deaths.
The Sun
15-07-2025
- Health
- The Sun
Sick crimes of morgue rapist David Fuller ‘could be REPEATED unless bodies are better cared for'
THE sickening crimes of morgue rapist David Fuller could be repeated unless bodies are better cared for, an inquiry has warned. Fuller, 68, was jailed for life in 2021 for sexually assaulting 101 female corpses while working as a maintenance engineer at NHS hospitals. The inquiry has already ruled better management and security could have prevented his crimes at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent. Now it has concluded regulation of the care of people after death is 'partial, ineffective and, in significant areas, completely absent'. Chairman Sir Jonathan Michael said: 'I have come to the conclusion that the current arrangements for the regulation and oversight of the care of people after death are partial, ineffective and, in significant areas, completely absent. 'I have concluded that it is entirely possible that such offences could be repeated, particularly in those sectors that lack any form of statutory regulation.' More than half a million British people die every year, with 568,613 in England and Wales in 2024. Sir Jonathan added he was concerned there are no industry standards for caring for dead people, and that anyone could become a funeral director without any qualifications. He said there is a 'cultural reluctance' to accept bodies can be abused. He went on: 'I am not confident arrangements currently in place satisfactorily protect the deceased from the risk of abuse.' 'I urge all those involved in the care of people after death to question whether they uphold the same standards as they would if that person were alive. 'The deceased are as vulnerable as the living and they are worthy of the same protection. 'The harm inflicted on David Fuller's victims and the hurt and trauma experienced by their families must never be repeated.' MORGUE monster David Fuller was free to assault dead women for 15 years due to 'serious failings' at the hospitals where he worked, a report found. The double killer abused at least 101 women while working at mortuaries in Tunbridge Wells Hospital and at the former Kent and Sussex Hospital. A probe found there were "missed opportunities" to stop the necrophiliac's 15-year rampage. His youngest victim was a nine-year-old girl and the oldest was 100 years old, with Fuller sometimes violating the bodies more than once. Inquiry chairman Sir Jonathan Michael said: "Failures of management, of governance, of regulation, failure to follow standard policies and procedures, together with a persistent lack of curiosity, all contributed to the creation of the environment in which he was able to offend, and to do so for 15 years without ever being suspected or caught. "Over the years, there were missed opportunities to question Fuller's working practices. "Had his colleagues, managers and senior leaders been more curious, it is likely that he would have had less opportunity to offend."
CBS News
03-07-2025
- CBS News
Philly says DC 33 strike is crowding the morgue as it seeks injunction to get medical examiner's employees back
Breaking down the verdict in the Diddy trial | Digital Brief Breaking down the verdict in the Diddy trial | Digital Brief Breaking down the verdict in the Diddy trial | Digital Brief Cooled storage for dead bodies is getting crowded, and there is a "backlog" of cadavers that need to be examined in Philadelphia's morgue amid an ongoing labor strike, attorneys for the city said in a court filing Thursday. As the AFSCME DC 33 strike continues in its third day, the city filed documents in the county Court of Common Pleas seeking an injunction to compel 31 union members in the Medical Examiner's Office to return to work. The strike began at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, and soon after, every employee on the clock at the 24/7 office walked off the job, according to the city's court filing, which includes statements from Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon. The members on strike include medicological death investigators, forensic technicians, and investigators, as well as clerical and service staff. Since the strike, the cold storage in the office has been filling up with bodies, numbering 180 as of the morning of July 1. "The MEO is currently operating over capacity with two bodies per bed," Simon wrote. Simon added that in ideal conditions, the storage should contain no more than 160 bodies. Not having the DC 33 employees working also means death investigations are delayed, which could increase the backlog further. This could also jeopardize the prompt transportation and refrigeration of bodies to the refrigerated storage areas, the document states. "If MEO is unable to properly attend to the sudden, unexpected, and/or suspicious deaths within Philadelphia, there will be numerous dead bodies sitting in homes and on street corners without staff to transport them to the refrigerated morgue storage areas," the document reads. They also note that dead bodies contain high volumes of bacteria and potentially live viruses, can attract insects and rodents that also carry viruses and bacteria, and pose a public health hazard when not properly handled. DC 33 President Greg Boulware told CBS News Philadelphia the injunction is proof that the union's workers provide the most important functions of a city, and that the situation could be resolved by paying the workers an adequate wage. He urged the city to come back to the negotiating table and offer a fair wage to the union members. Judges have sided with the city in previous injunction requests during this week's strike. After just one day, 911 dispatchers were ordered back to work as their services were deemed critical to the city's safety. About 70 Philadelphia Water Department employees were also ordered to return to work via injunction. And a judge also granted an injunction compelling the union to stop picketing that was deemed disruptive to services. contributed to this report.
Telegraph
14-06-2025
- Telegraph
Air India dead strewn across filthy Indian morgue
Bodies of the Air India crash passengers and crew have been left strewn uncovered across a chaotic and dirty morgue, footage appears to show. A video obtained by relatives and seen by The Telegraph appears to show charred and torn victims of the Flight AI171 disaster lying across the floor in a filthy pink walled room at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad. In the graphic footage, which The Telegraph is not publishing, limbs can be seen on a tiled floor next to barred windows and burnt bodies uncovered among dirty sheets. Three days on, families are still trying to identify victims of the crash. Relatives of the deceased told The Telegraph that less than 40 of the more than 270 total dead had been confirmed so far through DNA testing. As investigators try to find the cause, relatives of the 53 British people who died are scrambling to reach the western Indian city and identify their loved ones before repatriating them to the UK. Among those looking for closure was Abdullah Nanabawa, the father of Akeel Nanabawa, who died alongside his wife, Hannaa Vorajee, and their four-year-old daughter, Sara. Mr Nanabawa, who grew up in Newport, South Wales, was returning to his home in Gloucestershire with his wife and child. His father has now been provided with the horrific footage of inside the morgue and said he was asking to see his son's body. 'This is the situation inside,' he told The Telegraph. 'They won't let me inside the mortuary. I'm his father. It's my right to see him, no matter how broken, how burned. I have to face this. I should have died instead, he was taken away.' As he smoked a cigarette every 10 minutes and walked around in slippers outside the Civil Hospital, waiting for answers, he added: 'Release the bodies of my relatives. This is unfair.' None of the British relatives flying in from the UK appear to have reached the hospital yet. Indian relatives of British crash victims, some of whom drove through the night for up to 12 hours, told The Telegraph that they have been left waiting outside the hospital for days in unbearable heat, 'begging' for answers. Hannaa Vorajee's cousin, Ameen Siddiqui, 28, from Surat in Gujarat, said their home had been 'alive with laughter' this Eid, reunited with their British relatives. 'We're invisible' 'None of us imagined it would be our last Eid together or that the next time we'd gather, it would be to wait outside a hospital, begging for answers,' he said. 'We've been coming to the hospital every day since the crash, morning till midnight, and no one tells us anything. It's as if we're invisible. They won't even confirm if their bodies are inside,' he said. Officials, he said, 'keep repeating, 'Wait 72 hours'.' 'Seventy-two hours for what? We're not even allowed past the gate. Even the people at the helpline don't answer our queries. There is a wall of silence while our dead lie inside, unacknowledged. 'The worst pain is not just that we lost them, but that we can't even see them, can't say goodbye, can't know. For three nights, we've stood here in the heat, the dust,' he said. On Saturday evening the first British relatives are expected to begin arriving after finally securing visas and flights. However, Indian family members say they don't know how to prepare them for the horror and uncertainty that awaits. Mr Siddiqui told The Telegraph: 'My aunt Yasmin, Hanna's mother, and her son Muhammad are flying in from London today [Saturday]. What will we say to them? That we don't even know if their bodies still exist? That their granddaughter may never be buried properly? We feel abandoned.' Imtiyaz Ali Syed, 42, whose brother Javed, 37, died with his wife Mariam and their children Zayn, six, and Amani, four, has been at the hospital since 2am on Friday, having driven through the night when news broke. The family, who live in west London, had been in India on a long-awaited Eid holiday to spend time with Javed's ailing mother. Javed was a hotel manager, Mariam worked as a brand ambassador at Harrods. 'This was Javed's second visit home in over a decade,' Mr Syed said. 'He had worked hard in London all these years and finally planned this trip just to be with the family, to celebrate Eid together like old times. We hadn't had a full family gathering in years.' Mr Syed said he 'could not gather the courage' to enter the mortuary. 'They said the bodies were burnt beyond recognition. What would I see? What could I possibly recognise? That image would stay with me forever. I couldn't bear it. No one can imagine our pain. 'We saw them off happily, then they were killed and we won't get closure. People die and families at least find closure by burying their bodies with a face. We can't see their faces anymore.' 'We've lost everything in a moment, because of someone else's negligence,' he said. 'My nephew Zain was six, my niece Amani just four. We don't even know if their bodies remain. How can a family process grief when there's not even a face left to say goodbye to?' On Friday The Telegraph reported that Mariam's older sister, Sadaf Javed, 48, was desperate to travel from her home in west London to Ahmedabad. Today her sister-in-law, Yasmine Hassan, from west London, confirmed that Mrs Javed had finally obtained a visa and is now on standby for flights. 'This is her baby sister, her husband, and her sister's two children,' Mrs Hassan said. 'Those two children see her like a second mum. She just wants to be there.' Investigators are continuing to search the crash site in the Meghaninagar district 1.5km metres from the end of the runway at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner headed for London Gatwick crashed into a hostel where medical students and their families were living just 30 seconds after take-off. India has ordered urgent safety tests of Boeing 787s and the flight data recorder, known as the black box, had been recovered and was being looked into by investigators. Only one of the 241 people on board survived the crash, the sole surviving passenger, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, from Leicester, who was sitting in seat 11A.
Sky News
13-06-2025
- General
- Sky News
Air India plane crash: Families in Ahmedabad endure agonising wait for victims' bodies
Families just want the bodies of their loved ones. They have gathered in the scorching summer heat outside the morgue in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and crane their necks to get a glimpse of the next stretcher carrying a body bag to a waiting ambulance. The process for identifying bodies after the Air India plane crash is painstaking and some have been burnt beyond recognition. All but one of the 242 people on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner died. 0:56 DNA samples are being matched with relatives, but patience is running thin. The wait for Lila Behan is agonising. She wails and cries, longing to see her grandson Akash one last time. She tells Sky News that he was outside when the aircraft crashed into their quarters. There was fire all around, her daughter-in-law Sita ran towards the flames and got severely burned. She's fighting for her life in the hospital's intensive care unit. "I can't even see my child's face now, they said he's so severely burnt. But I just want to see him for one last time," she says. Anand Thanki lost three members of his extended family, including an infant. All were British nationals from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. His sister-in-law Raxa had travelled to India with her daughter-in-law Yasha and infant grandson Rudra for a religious ceremony. Raxa lost her husband to cancer two months ago and this was a ritual she needed to perform. Anand tells Sky News: "It's a big loss, but what can we do? We can only blame our fate, it's probably written for us. "Worst was for my nephew who had dropped them at the airport, returned home and heard the news of the incident." India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the crash site and assessed the situation. He knows the city well, it's personal for him. He has been a legislator for over a decade and previously served as the chief minister of the state of Gujarat. At the crash site, he walked around debris and the block of flats which were in the flight path of the plane. The aircraft began losing altitude and within minutes of take-off, it plummeted to the ground, erupting in a fireball. At the hospital, Mr Modi met Vishwash Kumar Ramesh - the only person to escape the aircraft. He spoke of his miraculous escape. 0:58 The scale of the tragedy has been compounded by its location. The plane came down right in the heart of a built-up neighbourhood, with the front of the aircraft crashing into residential quarters for medical students. The wheels and tail of the plane are embedded in the top floor of one of the buildings, where many had gathered for lunch in a dining hall. Plates are still on tables - evidence that residents were eating when the aircraft tore through. There were at least 23 victims on the ground, including students, doctors and family members. Some are in a critical condition. 2:00 The cause of the crash remains unknown. Investigators will now begin the long and complex process of establishing what went wrong. But many families will grapple with the unimaginable loss after one of the worst disasters in India's aviation history.
