Bodies decompose at Nkayi District Hospital mortuary

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BODIES at Nkayi District Hospital mortuary have for the past few weeks been decomposing after the hospital went for weeks without electricity, following the vandalism of electricity poles that have been stripped off copper wire.

A source at the hospital, who declined to be named for professional reasons, confirmed the development, saying the decomposition of the bodies in the hospital morgue was caused by an electricity black out in the district that was a result of copper wire theft in areas close to Silobela.

The lack of electricity at the hospital, the source said, adversely affected operations at the district health institution.

“It is true that for the better part of a few weeks we did not have electricity at the hospital and that obviously affected our operations. Uncollected bodies at the hospital were decomposing as the lack of electricity affected the mortuary-cooling system as the fridges are powered by electricity.

“We were told the black out was caused by the theft of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) copper cables in Silobela,” said the source.

The decomposing of the uncollected bodies in the mortuary, the source added, resulted in a pungent smell emanating from the morgue and working in the premises close to the morgue was now difficult.

The source further told the Sunday News that although there was a generator at the hospital it was not connected to every unit of the hospital, as it has no capacity to power the whole institution.

“We always urge people to collect the bodies from the mortuary early as it is not big enough to accommodate more than eight bodies and to avert the possibility of eventualities where the bodies will decompose after experiencing power outages like the one we experienced.

“It is not always that we encounter problems of bodies decomposing in the mortuary as in most cases the power outages would hardly exceed two days,” said the source, adding that the drug situation had improved significantly from last year though there was still need to continue bettering the drug supply situation at the hospital.

The district hospital, it was further learnt had no adequate ambulances to cater for the growing number of patients that are referred to the institution some of whom would need to be re-referred to bigger hospitals.

Officer commanding police in Nkayi district, Chief Superintendent Jairos Chiwona, confirmed reports of copper wire theft that affected the district but could not shed light saying the area where the theft occurred does not fall in his policing area but in the Midlands province. Sources, however, said there were a number of electricity poles that were cut down and stripped of copper cables by the thieves.

The theft of copper wire and the loss of electricity in Nkayi district led to a situation where people could not watch the better part of the World Cup held in South Africa, something they said was unfortunate.

The District Administrator, Ms Nosizi Dube, said the power black out that hit the district did not only affect the operations at the hospital but the whole district as service delivery was brought to a stand still while meat and other perishables were simply thrown away.