Unclaimed bodies left to rot in old hospital morgue

MACABRE scenes unfolded yesterday at the old Nicosia hospital after it was found that two bodies were left to rot in an out-of-order mortuary.

The story came to light when an undertaker sought the body of a foreign man for burial. As instructed, the undertaker visited the new Nicosia general hospital, but the body was nowhere to be found.

Several phone calls later, it turned out the body had been left behind at the old hospital, now abandoned after the move to the new premises.

Escorted by police, the undertaker then trekked to the old hospital. A ghoulish sight was in store for them as they popped open the freezer chamber in the mortuary.

“I can’t quite describe what we saw. There were two bodies inside the chamber… one was in a state of complete decomposition.

“The person had turned into a mummy,” said an aghast undertaker.
Because the old hospital was out of commission, its electricity had been cut, leaving the bodies to rot.

Appearing on CyBC television last night, Health Minister Charis Charalambous explained what had happened.

He said the next of kin did not seek out the bodies, and that under Cyprus law the remains may be kept for up to three months, after which they are buried.

However, because the three-month expiry period was just around the corner, pathologists apparently made a judgment call not to transfer the bodies to the new hospital.

“The bodies were not forgotten. It was a conscious decision,” Charalambous said.

“That said, I am not satisfied with the handling of the situation. It seems the persons in charge did not exercise the necessary diligence and there was poor co-ordination between them.

“Also, there are some contradictions in their accounts,” he added.

The minister said he would be launching a disciplinary probe on Monday, and did not rule out suspensions in the event of dereliction of duty.

One of the dead men was said to be Moldovan, the other Polish.

Because of the poor state of one of the bodies, it had to be interred immediately at a Nicosia cemetery.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.