Family Cremates Wrong Body, Confusion Hits Funeral Directors
The family of former Navua and national soccer team midfielder, Rajneel Chand, has raised disappointment after finding out they had cremated the wrong body on Wednesday.
They were mistakenly given a wrapped body and were told that the late Mr Chand died of COVID-19. They were not allowed to unwrap his body.
Mr Chand’s uncle, Subir Kumar Raj said they were disappointed with how they cremated someone else’s body.
“When we arrived at the morgue a body was already wrapped and we were told that it was Rajneel’s body, but we could tell it was not him judging from the person’s physique,” Mr Raj said.
“But we were told that it was his body and that we were not allowed to unwrap the body.
“We were informed that our nephew died of COVID-19, but we all know that he died from suicide. We tried to persuade them to see if it was really him, but they did not allow us.
“When the body was being cremated, we could tell that the person we cremated was someone small. We panicked when we realised that it was not the body of my nephew that we cremated.
“At the morgue we saw Rajneel’s body, and we were right that it was not his body that we cremated. We feel sorry for the family of the person we cremated.
“Before wrapping the body, they should have asked one of us to see if it really was our nephew. Now the mistake is done, and we cannot undo it. We are taking our nephew’s body today (Thursday).
“We apologise to the family who will find out that the body of their loved one is not at the morgue and that we have already cremated it.”
Morgue Services
Suva Funeral Directors manager Lanieta Cakacaka said she was not present at work on the day the incident happened, but a full report had been presented to Colonial War Memorial (CWM) Hospital Medical Superintendent, Dr Luke Nasedra on what had transpired.
The Ministry of Health and Medical Services had outsourced the running of the Colonial War Memorial (CWM) Hospital mortuary to Suva Funeral Directors.
Suva Funeral Directors is the private company that is now in charge of the daily operations at the mortuary.
The hospital’s acting medical superintendent, Dr Nasedra, when contacted yesterday, said they had received a report of the incident from the private company operating the mortuary and all details had been with the Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services Dr James Fong.
A thorough investigation on the incident will be carried out by the ministry to determine the cause of mishap before it can be taken any further action.