ESUTH to dispose more than 300 unclaimed, overstayed corpses

The management of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology Teaching Hospital (ESUTH) says it will dispose more than 300 unclaimed bodies from its mortuary before the end of March.

This is contained in a statement issued by the Chief Medical Director of ESUTH, Prof. Bethrand Ngwu, on Thursday in Enugu.

Ngwu said that anybody whose relations or friend’s corpse had stayed in the hospital for a period of six months and above should proceed and claim it.

According to him, failure to claim the corpses within three weeks after the announcement, all bodies not claimed shall be disposed off permanently and the hospital will not be held accountable.

“This announcement serves as a notice to anybody whose relations or friend`s corpse has stayed in the hospital for a period of six months and above, to proceed and claim it,” he said.

“Failure to do so within three weeks after this announcement, all bodies not claimed shall be disposed off permanently, and the hospital will not be held accountable,” he said

Prof. Gerald Eze of Histopathology Department, ESUTH told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that some of the corpses had stayed for one year and some over two years.

Eze, who is in charge of the corpses’ disposal, noted that the hospital would organise mass burial for the corpses if their relations or friends did not come to claim them within the given period.

He said that if the relations could come forward, the hospital would release the corpses to them, adding that the hospital gave three weeks of grace to their relatives to come and claim them.