Mourners shouldn’t attend post-mortem – Health

MBABANE – In other countries, it is not a norm to find mourners waiting outside during post-mortems.

Dr Velephi Okello, who is the Director of Health Services, said under normal circumstances, members of the public should not be present.

She said she had noticed that members of the public in Eswatini waited for pathologists to perform the post-mortem but added that this was not how it happened in other countries.

Dr Okello said this was the same with surgical operations. Even there, she said, relatives of patients were not allowed to follow the post-mortem proceedings.

“The public has to trust doctors,” she said.

She elucidated that police were also not allowed to be present in other countries, but it was a different kettle of fish in Eswatini.

Dr Okello shared that only a doctor and medical assistant should be present to conduct the autopsy. She, in fact, did not understand why emaSwati waited outside the mortuaries while post-mortems were being carried out.

Furthermore, she said, under normal circumstances, the doctor should conduct the post-mortem alone. The doctor then compiles a report for the attention and consideration by the court.

If there are to be any questions to be asked, Dr Okello said the doctor would be the only authority expected to assist the court with answers.

She said there was a new Health Act, whereby regulations on the operation of mortuaries would be introduced. In the new regulations, she said, it would be made clear that, members of the public would not be allowed to be near the mortuary and that only the medical personnel shall be there.

She said for now, there was no other way of doing it, but that it was not right for members of the public to sit while doctors conducted the post-mortem.

She noted that the reason why many members of the public insisted on being present was because they feared that the doctors would steal their deceased relatives’ body.

“If they really wanted to steal the parts, they would do so during normal surgical operations,” she said. Dr Okello said it was possible for doctors to steal parts such as kidneys without patients knowing, but said this could never happen.

She said doctors were highly trained to safeguard their professions and would not, therefore, sacrifice their callings by stealing body parts.