Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) is set to get four new freezers, capable of preserving 20 bodies in total, in its morgue.
Of these four, two of them come with a capacity of preserving six bodies each while the rest two can store four body each at a time.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Professor Dr Habibuzzaman Chowdhury, head of DMCH’s forensic medicine department, said the new four freezers have reached at the college campus on Thursday and will be installed by today.
“I hope these new freezers will be functional by this week,” he added.
The forensic medicine department had been trying to set up new freezer at the morgue for last few year, however, the new freezers came after the only mortuary freezer, which could store up to 12 bodies at a time, went out of order on August 10.
Being the largest public hospital in the capital, most dead bodies related to crime and accidents end up at DMCH for autopsy from the capital and in many cases from different corners of the country.
Documents show that on an average, four to five dead bodies are brought here every day. The DMCH morgue played a very crucial role during times of calamities like the BDR mutiny in 2009, Tazreen Fashions factory fire in 2012 and last year’s Rana Plaza tragedy.
Private hospitals in the capital and outside, those who have freezing facilities, do not generally entertain cases of unnatural death and such bodies are forwarded to the DMCH.
But since the DMCH morgue freezer has been out of order, sources said only one dead body was being kept in an air-conditioned room, however, the AC proved to be incapable of keeping the body from decomposing.
In order to detect the identification, morgue staff generally preserve unidentified dead bodies in the mortuary freezer for several days. But in the last 15 days, the preservation process was greatly hampered, spreading a stench in and around the area.
Several senior forensic doctors told the Dhaka Tribune that DMCH’s morgue had not been modernised and was still using medieval instruments to conduct autopsies.
The current mortuary of the hospital does not even have a table or an operating light. The dissections are conducted on the floor with hammers and shovels. There is no water supply for cleaning the wastes and mostly the heat inside the morgue gets unbearable as its air conditioners seldom work.
Since there is no proper drainage system, water gets clogged on the floor every time there is rainfall. Medical students are also forced to stand for hours during practical classes, because it has no gallery.
According to the senior forensic doctors, an ideal morgue should have adequate number of trolleys for carrying bodies, coolers for preserving bodies; properly air conditioned rooms, arrangements for hot and cold water for cleaning stains, portable x-ray machines, modern cameras for taking pictures; focusing lights for close observation; hard tools; stainless medical equipment and a gallery for students.
