7 months old corpses still awaiting post mortems

By Lagi Keresoma

APIA, SAMOA – 11 MARCH 2022: There are currently 7 corpses at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital morgue awaiting post mortem since August 2021.

The bodies are again piling up as in 2020, when a Chinese medical team was dispatched to Samoa for 6 months to perform post mortems on some long standing cases with some dating back to the 2019 measles epidemic.

The Acting Police Commissioner Papali’i Monalisa Keti told Talamua this week that it is an issue that must be addressed and the backlog is due to the absence of a local pathologist.

She hopes a pathologist is among the team from China that is currently in quarantine so post mortems can be done on the bodies still in the morgue.

Papali’i insists that Samoa needs to have its own pathologist.

“Just because a post mortem is completed, it does not mean it ends there because the number of post mortems continues to rise due to incidents happening that need a pathologists report,” she said.

Samoa has been without a pathologist for more than 20 years and had engaged the service of New Zealand or Australian pathologists to conduct post mortem when needed.

The only Samoan who took studies in the field of pathology has returned overseas for further studies towards full qualification.

The Assistant Police Commissioner, Papalii Monalisa.

The absence of a pathologist is a concern for the Court and police because of the delays as already recorded which means delays in finalizing pending court cases and releasing the bodies to the families for the funeral services.

The Court had pressured post mortems to be completed as court decisions had been delayed due to the length of time some of the bodies have been in the morgue, which included some of the longstanding cases from the measles pandemic in 2019.

In 2021, the available space in the Hospital morgue required a cooler container to store the bodies.

In February 2021, then Prime Minister Tuilaepa apologized on his weekly programme with the local media due to the situation at the morgue.

In May 2021, Judge Vui Clarence Nelson raised concern over the six months delay in the post mortem in the case that required a court decision of a father accused of his son’s death.

Current Steps to Address the Issue
On Wednesday this week, representatives of the Office of the Attorney General, Ministry of Police, Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade met to look at a solution for the problem.

“It is our goal to deal with post mortems early so the bodies could be released to the families early,” said Papali’i.

She said the Ministry of Police is looking at the possibility of investing in a police pathologist.

She said such field is very expensive and it is such a specialised area and even New Zealand and Australia have limited pathologists.