A VISIT TO THE MORGUE
On a recent trip to Malawi a member of the Board of Directors for the Malawi Project, Mike Ferris toured a rural hospital in southern Malawi. Before leaving the hospital staff insisted he see their morgue of which they were quite proud. Reluctantly he followed them outside the hospital. After the visit he filed this report.
“Did I mention what the Head Nurse and Hospital Director wanted me to see before leaving? That’s right, the morgue. I told the rest of my team they were not to accompany me to the morgue, and they were to stay behind with Wilson Tembo from the mission. As I proceeded in the direction of the morgue, I thought of all I had just witnessed in the main part of the hospital. The morgue was what we might refer to as an old, beat up, outdoor shed. There was one window A/C unit through the exterior wall that cooled the shed. As we approached, the first thing I noticed was the smell of the area. However, the medical director was very insistent I see the morgue, as he was proud of the facility, it just had no cooling. The mother of the deceased girl was at this point, about 50 feet from the morgue, sitting under a tree, grieving the loss of her daughter, wailing like I’ll never forget! When they opened the morgue, I walked in. There were three layers in the morgue and it was explained the hospital experiences a minimum of two deaths each day, so it suffices. If there are more, the bodies are laid out on the floor. However, the only body in the morgue at the time of my visit was that of Maggie, wrapped in a light green sheet, on the second tier. It broke my heart to see, and I quickly thanked the staff for their need to show me their morgue and exited. As I was walking back, I must have said all I wanted to do was to go over and hug that mother, but it was loud enough that three staff looked at me and said that it would be appropriate at this time if I wanted to hug her. I approached Maggie’s mother one last time and asked her if I could give her a hug. She said yes and cried on my shoulder. I cannot imagine…”
