JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, August 11, 2025

Bodies rot faster as fridge breaks down

by

20140205

A mal­func­tion­ing re­frig­er­a­tor at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre has forced the tem­po­rary re­lo­ca­tion of an undis­closed num­ber of uniden­ti­fied bod­ies, some of them de­com­pos­ing.A me­dia re­lease is­sued by the di­rec­tor of cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions at the Min­istry of Jus­tice, Ali­cia Carter-Fish­er, said the mal­func­tion took place on Mon­day, when staff com­plained of a stench in the build­ing.The T&T Guardian was in­formed that the cost to store a body at a fu­ner­al home was at least $400 per body per night.

Pathol­o­gist Dr Valery Alexan­drov told the T&T Guardian in a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day that the tem­per­a­ture of the re­frig­er­a­tor, which was nor­mal­ly four de­grees Cel­sius, reached 16 de­grees on Mon­day.He added that the prob­lem was that the equip­ment was in­stalled when the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre was built in 1983. He said the air duct in the old, aban­doned au­top­sy room where the old re­frig­er­a­tor is lo­cat­ed is con­nect­ed to the main build­ing and when­ev­er the fridge mal­func­tioned the smell would seep in­to the main build­ing.

He added that the bod­ies kept at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre are usu­al­ly uniden­ti­fied. Some are brought in de­com­pos­ing and some re­main there be­cause fam­i­lies can't af­ford to bury them.He sug­gest­ed that two in­dus­tri­al fans should be in­stalled in the old wing of the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre where the prob­lem oc­curs to blow the air away from the main build­ing if the fridge broke down again. He al­so sug­gest­ed that de­com­pos­ing bod­ies should be stored in box­es to pre­vent seep­age.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored