By Lorraine Anyango
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH) has issued a notice for the disposal of unclaimed lying at the hospital’s mortuary.
The notice signed by the Chief Executive Officer, JOOTRH Dr. George Rae states in part ‘Notice is hereby given to the general public that all bodies that have overstayed at the hospital mortuary as unclaimed bodies for the last six months are due for disposal.’
The notice dated 18th July 2022 calls upon all members of the public who have lost their relatives to go and view the bodies for identification. The viewing commenced on July 30th July from 9.00 AM to 4.00 PM.
The hospital has further released a list of the unclaimed bodies, indicating the exact place of death and date, and the cause, though most are undetermined.
A few of the 32 unclaimed bodies have names, they include Mr. Stephen Osolo who passed away while undergoing treatment in ward 7, he succumbed on 27th January 2022 and the cause of death is undermined.
The body of Mr. Erick Ouma who died in ward 7 on 2nd January and Erick Omondi who was in ward 2 and who succumbed on 20th January 2022, Charles Okumu died at Kondele on 8th June 2022 are part of the unclaimed bodies.
Of the 32 bodies only two are women, they include Helida Oyoko who died at the casualty on 18th March 2022 and Rosebell Aoko Omori who was also at the casualty and passed on January 25th, 2022.
Others on the list include seven men who all died at the hospital casualty on various dates in the year 2021 including 16th June 2021, 14th July 2021, 21st July 2021, 23rd August 2021, 11th September 2021, and 14th October 2021.
Four of these unidentified bodies were brought in from Maseno having succumbed on 23rd July 2021, 8th December 2021, 25th December 2021 whose cause of death was drowning, and 17th December 2021.
Three bodies were brought in from Kasagam, one whose cause of death was drowning occurred on November 13th, 2021, and the other two occurred on 10th April 2022, and July 7th, 2022.
Another body was recovered from Kondele, and the documented date of death is 14th November 2021.
Three other bodies were brought in from Obunga with their dates of death being 24th December 2021, 27th August 2021, and 3rd May 2022.
Yet another three bodies were brought in from Kisumu central and the documented date of death include, 11th August 2021, 7th December 2021, and April 3rd, 2022.
One body was from Nyando sub-county hospital with the date of death being 2nd November 2021, another one was from Nyalenda with the date being 3rd May 2022, another from Kombewa dated 4th May 2022, and yes another body from Nyalenda whose date of death is 3rd May 2022.
The JOOTRH morgue has been stretch to capacity since Kisumu has no city mortuary, so all bodies collected from different places by police officer are preserved at JOOTRH.
The hospital old mortuary has also been renovated at a cost of Ksh 5 million. The asbestos roof has been replaced, the floor redone and the machines repaired and fresh painting done.
The morgue has a superintended Mr Richard Moracha, it has five other technical members of staffs all of them under the leadership of Dr Sava Solomon who is a pathologist.
The hospital is in the process of finishing a new ultra-modern funeral home to better serve the western region of Kenya and further ease the congestion.