According to the cadaver management protocol, an autopsy is not recommended, although relatives insist that they had symptoms of the coronavirus.
With the gradual increase in the number of people infected with coronavirus, the death toll rises, which puts the health system on alert, including Legal Medicine.
Although up to March 25, 29 people who died from COVID-19 were counted in the government registry, apparently this statistic would vary with an underreporting of people who die at home.
Through social networks, citizens denounce that they find deceased relatives and neighbors within their homes in Guayaquil and that, despite the insistent call to the Police and the ECU-911, no one removes the bodies, even 24 hours after death has occurred.
In several of the cases, it was never confirmed if they had coronavirus, since the patients were unable to access the screening test before dying, despite having suspicious symptoms. Their relatives are concerned because they do not know if they were also infected.
This situation points to an underreporting of deaths from the new coronavirus, since in these suspected cases it is also not recommended to perform an autopsy to confirm the cause of death according to the cadaver management protocol.
However, the director of the Risk and Emergency Management Service, Alexandra Ocles, preferred not to refer to this topic during her speech on Wednesday, March 25.
This scenario was also confirmed by the general director of the Forensic Service of Legal Medicine, Gustavo Zárate, who assured that the emergency service received only this Tuesday more than 40 alerts of deaths in their homes, in the city of Guayaquil.
Despite these figures, official statistics indicate that of the deaths recorded by the new coronavirus nationwide, until Tuesday only two people had died in their homes.
All this delay in the removal of corpses that has occurred in, especially, in the province of Guayas, prompted the Director of Criminalistics of the Police, Xavier Rosero, to go to the Main Port to solve the problem.
The director of Legal Medicine said that he understands the desperation of the relatives and that four teams have been formed to carry out the removal of bodies.
In addition, the governor of Guayas, Pedro Pablo Duart, reported that an alliance with the Charity Board of Guayaquil and the Parque de la Paz was made to manage free cremations for the corpses of people who die from the new virus.
Source: Expreso, social networks
Be the first to comment