Sixteen out of the 20 corpses are children. The General Manager of the hospital, James Oben Agbor last Friday November 26, granted a press conference to alert the public about the preoccupying situation.

Some 20 corpses are currently lying unclaimed at the mortuary of the National Social Insurance Fund hospital in Essos-Yaounde. The General Manager of the hospital, James Oben Agbor last Friday November 26, granted a press conference to alert the public about the preoccupying situation. According to the director, the situation renders work difficult in terms of space to keep other corpses or the health hazards that the hospital officials and patients are exposed to.

James Oben Agbor blamed the situation on the bad faith of families who abandon the corpses of mostly children who die in the hospital and runaway because of unpaid bills. Most of the corpses are said to come from other hospitals for health care while some of the families who abandoned corpses are accused for giving wrong information to the hospital like telephone numbers. “I think that the families have been untruthful for not coming towards the hospital authorities for their corpse withdrawal procedures irrespective of the support and understanding the institution accorded them. Some of them instead go to media houses to denounce the hospital for confiscating their corpses thereby tarnishing the image of the hospital,” he regretted.

Despite their dishonesty and ill fate, the hospital authorities are pleading on them to come and collect their corpses so that the hospital can continue to serve other Cameroonians. Some of the corpses are said to be lying in the mortuary of this hospital since 2003. “This is not only awful to hear but we run the risk of contamination,” he lamented. James Oben stressed that they are not demanding any fee from the families but their wish is to see that the corpses are taken away from the mortuary. “I want to stress that the withdrawal of the corpses is free,” he said. The hospital authorities revealed that newly born do not pay mortuary fees but the mortuary continues to record a high number of abandoned live and death babies.

“Bebe Edimo” Affair

Born at the Efoulan Hospital in Yaounde on December 1, of Edimo Gbeli Alice and registered under the name “Bebe Edimo”, the latter is said to have been suffering from the deformity in her digestive system. Transferred to the CNPS hospital, she was operated upon on December 15 but gave up the ghost the next day and was kept at the mortuary. The hospital bills are said to have amounted to FCFA 475.200 (surgical intervention, and her stay at the reanimation block). The family is reported to have paid an advance of FCFA 100.000.

Media Gossip

The deceased family is reported never to have approached the hospital authorities for an agreeable talk on how to remove the corpse from the mortuary but went forward to campaign on media for funds to remove the corpse which they said was confiscated by hospital authorities on grounds of exorbitant bills. Anecdote newspaper in its editions no 491 and 492 of October 18 and 25 pages two and 10 respectively carried the story while radio stations like Siantou and Sky_One also ran commentaries on the issue which the hospital consider as a deliberate attempt to tarnish its reputation.

The hospital authorities are however making judicial and administrative contacts on the possible common burial of the abandoned corpses.