Bad stench prompts public to call for its quick removal
By CHARLES KADAMANA
Body of a foreigner believed to be Russian, who died in Honiara some three months ago, is still being kept at the National Referral Hospital’s morgue.
But it’s getting bad and the stench it is releasing is becoming unbearable for those attending to their deaths at the morgue.
“Why are they keeping a dead body in the morgue for three months? This is unacceptable,” a frustrated Honiara resident told the Sunday Star yesterday.
The man said they could not stand the smell when they were attending to a dead relative at the morgue the other day.
“This is not only unacceptable, but more so frustrating,” he continued.
“No dead body should be kept in the morgue this long.
“The body is taking up space at the morgue. Authorities should just go and bury or get rid of it.”
According to an Immigration officer spoken to, the Russian arrived some three months ago on a tourist visa.
“He was a male Russian, probably in his 60s,” the officer said.
“The strange thing about this man is the few days after he arrived he was basically living around the airport area.
“He never ventured out to town.
“Then he went and set up his tent inside the memorial garden near the airport. But then a security guard approached him, and told him he cannot stay in the garden.
“From what I heard, another local went and took him to his house. How long they lived and how he died, I don’t know,” the immigration officer said.
When asked about the body, the morgue keeper confirmed the man was a Russian and was brought to the morgue some three months ago.
Asked why the body is still there, the morgue keeper said:
“I’m still waiting for instructions from the police and immigration.
“Unless I receive instructions from them, I won’t do anything but just keep the body in there.”
The morgue keeper admitted the body is getting bad and that the smell it is causing at the morgue area is concerning, as well as disturbing.
A mother who was at the morgue on Friday said the smell was unbearable.
“Authorities should remove the body from here.
“People who come to attend to their dead relatives wanted to sit down in front of the morgue.
“But the smell from the body inside is chasing them away. It’s not good.”
Comments are being sought from Immigration and the police.
