A woman’s body ‘turned to liquid’ after being left to decompose in a morgue fridge for more than two months.
The body of a 69-year-old woman was left unclaimed at Port Pirie Hospital in South for at least 71 days early last year, The Advertiser reported.
Staff said the body left a ‘bad smell’ in the hospital after vaporising. Workers needed two body bags when they eventually removed the human remains.
A woman’s body ‘turned to liquid’ after being left to decompose in a morgue fridge for more than two months at Port Pirie Hospital (pictured)
Leaked documents showed that the hospital had no plan in place for how to store bodies long-term and had no policy for dealing with ‘unclaimed’ bodies.
South health minister Chis Picton has now ordered a review into the hospital’s processes.
The woman’s body arrived at the hospital in late November 2021 following her death at a retirement village on the Yorke Peninsula.
The body was left in a fridge with a minimum temperature of 4C, which is within the national guidelines for the short-term storage of a body – which is usually no longer than a few days.
A cleaner reported an awful stench two months later – in early February – leading senior management to make plans for the body to be removed.
‘To allow a deceased person to deteriorate to the point of a double body bag is required doesn’t indicate to me there is any consideration of care,’ a staff member said.
‘It’s certainly not dignified. It isn’t professional.
‘People should be held accountable.’