7 News Belize

KHMH RESPONSE
posted (August 30, 2011)
A little over two weeks ago, we reported on the death of 38 year old City Council employee, Adam Kuylen who died at home of unknown causes. His sudden passing came as a shock to his grieving family, but it is the tragic circumstances that surrounded the handling of his body prior to burial, that brought unspeakable grief to the friends and family of Kuylen.

As we reported, Kuylen's body was taken to the KHMH on Friday, August 12th, for an autopsy, but the family alleges that because of improper storage by the hospital, Kuylen's body went into an advanced state of decomposition. This prevented the medical examiner from conducting a proper post mortem, resulting in findings that were inconclusive. Yesterday, the hospital issued a press release stating the findings of an internal investigation regarding its management of Kuylen's body at the morgue. Jim McFadzean had a chance to look at the release, and reports why the KHMH is saying: Don't blame me!

Jim McFadzean reporting
Without accepting outright responsibility, the KHMH issued an apology to the family immediately after the incident and promised an internal investigation, one though that the Kuylen family said, did not go far enough. And so members of the family, lashed out at hospital authorities for what they called outright negligence and a complete lack of respect for the dead.

Vince Vasquez, Cousin of the deceased
"I guess you would normally expect they would put the body in a freezer or normal containment unit until Monday to continue regular business hours or whatever it is. I come to find out on Saturday morning that he was just left right there in the heat and his body started to decompose overnight. When we receive a phone call Saturday morning that Adam was left here - they push him in some freezer, we later find out that this freezer was full of trash, parts that needed to be discomposed - so they just put him in basically a trash can and that is just very disrespectful and inhumane."

More than two weeks now after the incident took place, and an investigation was conducted, the KHMH issued a press release yesterday to "…set the record straight"! But in setting the record straight, it offered no apologies, rather, the hospital has gone out of its way to shift blame for the entire screw up, blaming everyone from the Police to the Undertaker. In the release the hospital states, "As the violence in our society, particularly Belize City, has increased, the burden of the police cases has led on many occasions to overcrowding of the facility…as was the case on the weekend of August 12, 2011... the KHMH was never designed to accommodate decomposing bodies…and, there has been a working agreement with the police department that decomposing bodies should not be brought to the morgue. The undertaker, in looking after his own interest, then transported the body to the KHMH for pronouncement and storage at the morgue, despite knowing the standing rules in such circumstances. The release ends by saying: "the time has come for the police authorities and the relevant Government Ministries to do what is necessary to permanently solve this problem. The City of Belize must also, either individually or collectively seek the necessary permits and invest in morgue facilities of their own."

Vince Vasquez, Cousin of the deceased
"It's heartbreaking. My cousin was a hard worker. He deserves more than just a hole to throw him in there. If there was supposed to be assigned employees here that night - where were they? Some people have to be 24 hours. I would love to go to the human resource office and show me who they were and I would love for them to be fired because really no family has to go through this, none."

Kuylen had worked at City Hall for 12 years in the Sanitation and Works Departments.

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