Womans body turned to liquid after laying unclaimed in Port Pirie Hospitals morgue for t
The body of a woman “turned to liquid” after it was left decomposing in a hospital morgue for two months.
The body, which belonged to a 69-year-old woman, was left unclaimed for 71 days at Port Pirie Hospital early last year.
Staff said her body vaporised and “turned to liquid” which left a “bad smell” lingering in parts of the regional hospital in South Australia.
When staff eventually came to move her it took two body bags to transport the remains, The Advertiser reported.
A review is taking place into the death, with leaked documents showing the hospital had no rules about how to store bodies long-term or how to deal with dead “unclaimed” patients.
Port Pirie Hospital has been hit with a number of scandals including a “mix up” involving a dead child and a miscarried foetus being placed in a medical “bucket”.
South Australia health minister Chis Picton has widened a hospital review to include mortuary processes following the harrowing revelation.
The dead woman was transferred to the hospital’s morgue from a retirement village in the Yorke Peninsula in November 2021.
Documents revealed that the hospital did not have any rules on how to monitor unclaimed inpatients.
The woman’s body was kept in a fridge at 4C, which according to national guidelines, should only be used to store bodies for a couple of days.
If long term storage is required a body should be kept at -20C, according to national guidelines.
One staff member told the publication: “It’s certainly not dignified. It isn’t professional.”
Yorke and Northern Local Health Network chief executive Roger Kirchner said: “With any death and burial, it is important to respect the wishes of the person and family.
“We also respect that on occasions it takes time for appropriate arrangements to be made.
“We worked closely with this person’s loved ones at every stage to ensure they were cared for to the best of our ability while these arrangements were made.”
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