How family buried wrong corpse in Plateau because of mislabelling

There was confusion on Wednesday at the Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Plateau State, when a family from Rukuba area of Bassa LGA of the state came to the hospital to collect the corpse of their relative but could not find it after thorough check by the morticians of the hospital.

Daily Trust reports that David Atimbi Adi (33), who died last week was deposited on Thursday at the mortuary.

The confusion began when the family was given a different corpse by the hospital, which they said was not theirs. The members of the family then protested and blocked the entrance of the hospital and demanded the corpse of their son. It took the effort of the police to calm the situation.

While reacting on the development, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Prof Stephen Anzaku, said the corpse was not missing, explaining that, “What happened was a case of mislabeling of two bodies,” which he noted was unfortunate, explaining that it was the first time the hospital experienced such challenge.

“Two families brought the dead bodies of their loved ones last week Thursday at the same time. Unfortunately, the morticians mislabeled the corpses.

“One of the families came and took one of the corpses and buried it on Monday. Sadly, it was a wrong dead body they buried.

“This morning, the other family came and realised that the corpse presented to them was a wrong one and that was where trouble started.

“After investigation, we realised that the family that had their burial on Monday went away with the wrong corpse.

“The dead body buried by the other family was later exhumed and returned to the original family and the other family took theirs as well.”

The CMD, however, vowed to investigate the matter and that any official of the hospital found wanting would be sanctioned, lamenting that, “In the 60 years that this hospital has existed, this is the first time we are experiencing this kind of challenge.”