Dana plane crash: Families bury human parts

Some families have been burying just body parts of the victims because of the fatality of the plane crash that made some victims lose several parts of their bodies in the accident.That explains why most of the victims’ corpses are not laid in state before burial because what is inside the coffin is just dismembered body, a human leg, head, hand or other parts of the body.

However, Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Prof. David Wale Oke, said that it is far better than mass burial and it is what is practised in advanced countries when such fatal accidents happen.

He told Saturday Sun exclusively that the handling of the victims of Dana plane crash would be compiled into a report and presented in an international forum to show Nigeria’s advancement in managing such crises like plane crash.

He also said that in a meeting between Lagos State government and the victims’ families, it was agreed that the victims be buried separately as against mass burial, which is outdated in modern societies. He recalled a mass burial of victims of a plane crash done at Ejigbo, a suburb of Lagos State, where some relations of the crash victims can not visit easily because of distance. He commended Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola for taking the bold step to carry out the forensic analyses of the victims to ensure that each family buries its dead and that each victim has a personal grave side.

Prof. Oke noted that the antecedent set by Lagos State in handling the Dana plane crash victims will serve as a pathfinder in case of future occurrences in the country. “This is because the experts that handled the Dana Plane crash victims are here in LASUTH, are Nigerians and with the experience they have gathered, can handle similar accidents if called upon.” LASUTH CMD further explained that the delay in collection of the bodies of the Dana plane crash is partly because some families have the next-of-kin of the victims outside the country.

He also officially apologised on behalf of the hospital for the beating of a journalist, Mr. Benedict Uwalaka at LASUTH mortuary on Thursday. Normal corpses claim processes are ongoing as the relatives turn out in their numbers to finish the process of getting their corpses released after which they would place them back in the morgue to pick them at their convenience. Meanwhile, the journalist has been discharged from LASUTH and gone home, while he was advised to come for regular check-up because of the injuries he sustained.

Saturday 11 August 2012

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/national/dana-plane-crash-families-bury-human-parts/