Nigeria’s management and preparedness for disasters have been criticised for its lack of sensitivity on handling of bodies of victims as well as the communities affected following disasters. Dr Uwom Eze, a Forensic Pathologist at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, said what would be needed to close this gap was going to be the thrust of the African Society of Forensic Medicine (ASFM) Annual Forensic Conference early in March, 2014, at Abuja.
The annual conference, with the theme; “Management of Bodies of Victims Following Disasters” is to have in attendance, forensic and anatomical pathologists, medical laboratory and mortuary workers, law enforcement agencies, coroners, legal practitioners, NEMA officials, Red Cross and other stakeholders in disaster management.
Eze, saying that disasters were unfortunately inevitable, declared that often times the mental and psychological health issues that affected the community where the disaster occurred were neglected.
The expert who emphasised that there were so many medico-legal issues that need to be considered in relationship with such incidences, said in restoring sanity after disasters, government needed to first of all identify those who were involved.
“Bodies of victims are usually neglected. People are admonished to forget the dead but the dead is never dead because they leave traces of memory, life and consequences for their dependants and for their communities. That is why we are focusing on the management of bodies of victims”.
“Often we do mass burial and this may imply that the family of the missing may never get to know whether the person is actually dead; they never get to give the person appropriate burial and that is a perpetual mental and psychological torture for all people who are involved.
“The affected communities never come to closure and this distorts community health.
“Furthermore death certificates cannot be issued for such victims that were not identified, so you could imagine families, children and wives who depend on them will not be able to claim their property and investments in formal institutions.
“I reckon there is huge fortune, perhaps running into billions of Naira in Nigeria banks that may never be accessed by families of deceased following disasters. If the right processes and procedures were followed, the event could be less traumatic on the families and friends of the deceased and their dignity and rights preserved even in death.”
Eze said that the principles of forensic medicine, a medico-legal practice and an investigative aspect of medicine, if applied in disasters could also help unravel its cause.
According to him: “Some signs and features we could see on bodies of victims may be able to tell us whether the disaster is really an accident or an event that appeared to be an accident or may even be staged to be an accident. “For example, the evidences pieced together can tell if there was an explosion inside the plane, for example, or if it crashed due to some other mechanisms. The nature and circumstance of each incident may be seen through peculiar features on the bodies of victims.
“Imagine you are investigating a crash and a known terrorist is identified, it may imply there may have been some terrorist’s activities resulting in the crash and it may help direct the investigation in appropriate circumstance. So the bodies are not just bodies that are dead, they are very important in determining the cause of death and circumstance of event.
“So there is a lot of prevention initiatives that could come from investigating bodies of victims, especially in ensuring emergency preparedness.”
Eze acknowledging that Nigeria had experienced unprecedented disasters both man-made and natural disasters, noted that many of the bodies in these incidences were not properly investigated and managed.
“In Nigeria, every thing is lumped under one headline, and the problem is we do not usually go into details. Unfortunately what has not been carefully studied and addressed will keep repeating itself and we continue to look in the wrong direction. This is our sad story but it does not have to remain that way. The forthcoming pan-African Forensic Conference will attempt to address these issues with some relevant stakeholders in Nigeria and across Africa,” he concluded.
Thursday 06 February 2014
http://www.tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/health-news/item/32682-expert-faults-nigeria%E2%80%99s-disaster-management-policy-on-corpses.html
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