If there is one thing we can be certain of in life, it’s that we will eventually die. While we might not be able to control the manner, dead bodies should be respected and treated with dignity and care.
Almost all the State-run mortuaries my colleagues Lindile Sifile, Mark Andrews and I visited during our month-long investigation showed utter disdain for the dead.
The worst for me was the Woodbrook Forensic Pathology Laboratory, in East London.
The small building, currently under construction, looks like any other you might find in and around East London.
However, the horrors inside are beyond any description I can formulate. The best I can come up with is that it resembles a human abattoir.
Bloodied walls, stretchers, tools, organs and bodies are everywhere to be seen – some of the deceased are even piled on top of each other.
As a reporter I have seen my fair share of gruesome accidents and the dead over the years. But this mortuary takes first prize.
Walking through the doors and scanning the main room, sweat started dripping down my forehead. My body immediately started to reject what I was seeing.
All I could think of was running.
I had to force myself to stand still while my legs and arms started to tingle. After a minute my eyes glazed over and it seemed like I was under water.
I honestly think my mind was trying to block out what was right in front me – but it could not.
Paper, cardboard boxes and plastic bags were scattered on the bloody floor next to four big refrigerators. F ilthy stretchers were pushed against the walls.
Opening one of the blooded refrigerator doors, bodies were piled up on shelves – some sharing a single shelf – while others were dumped into a corner.
Organs were lying on the floor and some bodies had been left open after their postmortems.
Closing this door we moved across to the postmortem room .
While I was expecting this to be the worst, nothing could prepare me for seeing someone trying to tear the skin from the skull of a body with their gloved hands.
That is something that will be etched on my mind forever.
She was leaning back with all her weight, and pulling. The sound … well you can only imagine.
By this stage, the sights and smells got to me and I listened to my body. I walked – very quickly – out the door. It took at least 10 minutes for the heaving to subside .
Disgust, distaste and revulsion … that is what I felt. Driving back to the Daily Dispatch office I felt bad for the family members who had someone stored inside.
It is not right that people who once walked the streets of East London be treated like that. The mortuary workers showed no respect for the departed.
It has been over a month since I stepped into that mortuary but it still feels like it was yesterday.
The horrors inside are something I will never forget. It was easily the most bloodcurdling experience of my life. – By MICHAEL KIMBERLEY
Disturbing sights, sounds and smells cannot be avoided in a mortuary. The incident with the tearing the skin from the skull and it's noise, that is a routine procedure when removing the brain!
Bodies often are left open after post-mortems but are reconstructed soon after at some point in the day.
The place he describes above with the bad hygiene practice IS in the wrong in that regard - the image below is said place - Woodbrook Forensic Pathology Laboratory in East London.
This guy's other little whimperings made me laugh