The mystery that comes with death perhaps makes mortuary attendants a mysterious group of professionals that many do not quite understand.
As many mortuary attendants will say caring for the dead is a calling and it is not a job for everyone, the fear of coming into close contact with corpses makes their job of the least attractive coupled with stigma and ridicule surrounding the occupation unlike other professions where there is fierce competition.
In the following report Godwin Asediba tells a story of the terrible state of the korlebu teaching hospital morgue in Ghana’s capital, Accra, which has been reduced to a home of hatching maggots from dead bodies but still has mortuary attendants working in the facility.
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From the outside it’s hard to imagine the sheer number of corpses held up inside the Korlebu teaching hospital mortuary.
But as one draws closer, reality begins to dawn….a pungent and heady smell . Yet mortuary attendants are busy at work – having become immune over the years.
Their job is a difficult and life-threatening one and any little mistake here, one is bound to contract infections from dead bodies.
This has also been worsened by poor working conditions. Due to the lack of space, dead bodies lie on the dirty bare floor with flies hovering around them.
A dead baby with flies almost entering his mouth and nose left tears in my eyes.
Water droplets from dead bodies are stuck on the floor and cannot flow freely due to the terrible nature of the facility.
The small drains in the morgue which is to allow the free flow of dirty water are heavily choked with filth which breeds maggots.
In one of the storage rooms there is serious congestion. Initially built to accommodate a few dozens of dead bodies, now loaded with hundreds of dead bodies.
Director of Metro Public Health at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly Florence Kuukyi says the situation is extremely disturbing.
“How they work is dangerous because they are not properly protected”
But The mortuaries and funeral facilities agency, the body mandated to ensure proper functioning of mortuaries says it is helpless.
Emmanuel Okyere is acting director for the agency.
“The working conditions is not the best let me put it that way, but the agency is making frantic efforts to ensure that the working condition in which they work improves “
But the challenges faced by these workers don’t end inside the mortuary.
36 year old Mercy Okailey Okaijah who has been a mortuary attendant for nine years.
Her life has been characterized by scorn, stigma and abandonment owing to her profession.
Her biological mother disowned her for three years after she took up the job.
“Three years my mother didn’t want to see my face or talk to me”
Mercy says friends have distanced themselves from her but her passion is what encourages her to persevere. She is however unhappy about the working conditions at the mortuary where she works.
“We are suffering. Someone will pass away, we don’t know weather it’s HIV, Tuberculosis, you don’t know what is taking this person to his early grave, but that’s the work for you to do. So please the government should come to our aid and listen to us. We have tried talking to them severally but no response.”
52 year old Richard Tindani, heads to work which is a few kilometers away from his home.
He has been a mortuary attendant since 1989.
“People say mortuary men are not human beings but it does not bother me”
According to a study conducted by the journal of healthcare organization, provision and financing, Mortuary attendants are poorly paid despite their workload coupled with huge health risks.
The study says conditions of service of mortuary attendants should be reviewed to reflect the work they do considering that their job demands do not allow them to engage in other economic activities.
It says this will contribute to attracting even better-educated people and improve the services of the mortuary attendants.
Richard Tindani agrees.
He currently receives less than one thousand Ghana cedis monthly as salary – a pay that is too small to cater for himself and his family.
“Imagine the work we do as mortuary men, ours salary is not even up to 1000ghc. It is not easy at all, we’re really struggling”
Back at the morgue, these mortuary attendants continue to soldier on despite the hurdles – hoping for a better tomorrow.
Source: GHOne TV/ by Godwin Asediba
