They closed a morgue in Antioquia due to health problems and now they have nowhere to put the dead

A municipal morgue was closed in Valdivia, Antioquia, after authorities showed that the necessary sanitary conditions required by this type of space were not being met. According to the complaint presented by Blu Radio, residents are desperate because they have nowhere to take their dead after the restrictions imposed on this place. According to what the authorities emphasized, it is expected that a solution to this problem will be resolved within a period of no more than sixty days.

“When they just closed it, it took us all day to go hungry to Yarumal to carry a corpse because we already had it in the car; then, where were we going to unload it. We decided that as long as they don't define that, you don't collaborate because that is torture for us, because where does one put a corpse?” , said Jader Gómez, fire commander of Valdivia, in testimonies collected by that station.

The Mayor's Office of Valdivia, in the face of the crisis, assured that since 2016 the necessary requirements had been made to respond to the alleged breach of regulations. As of April 2022, the requests have not been met. Among the things claimed, the morgue is located in a cemetery, on private land, where there is no coverage of public services. The Ministry of Health of Antioquia said that the closure of the morgue will be reversed until what has been requested is fulfilled.

“First, adapt that place where it is with some requirements. Do the installation of water, of the other services that it generates. We are talking that within 60 days we can have the minimum adequacy and, obviously, with the commitment to build a morgue that meets the requirements,” said Valdivia's Secretary of Government, Francisco González. The official stressed that there is already a contingency plan, but that the morgue will be closed for two months.

The Mayor's Office added that the construction of a project that will allow the requirements required by the health authority to be met is already under way. Building a new morgue and getting a new one would cost about 500 million pesos.

A similar situation occurred in Cali, when it was reported that some bodies, including that of a 13-year-old boy, had to be transferred from the Institute of Legal Medicine in Cali to Palmira and Buga. Remodeling and maintenance work on the premises made it necessary to mobilize the bodies. Their relatives were in the midst of doubts when they did not know what the whereabouts of their loved ones were.

Legal Medicine in Valle del Cauca, in the spokesperson for Jairo Silva, stressed that the modifications to the facilities do not respond to damage but are routine maintenance. The aim is to ensure that the floors, the cooling systems, the condensers and the locative aspect are in good condition.

In order to prevent a health crisis, for two months, they explain from Medicina Legal, they have transported one or two bodies, which are not immediately identified. Of course, this is done under the idea of doing the subsequent recognition of the body and handing over to its relatives. The entity explained that the main thing is not to generate discomfort among the mourners of those people, so the transfers are made with reduced amounts of corpses.

In recent days, in Semana magazine, it was reported that crime students were dissecting bodies and taking pictures with them and then uploading that content to social networks. “That was a butcher's shop,” he said that up to 170,000 pesos are paid per day of diploma in thanatopraxia and body dissection.

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