Hopolang Mokhopi
A Lekokoaneng family in Berea was left devastated on Friday after discovering that the body they had gone to collect for burial was not that of their deceased relative, but an entirely different person.
Their deceased relative was only found in Mafeteng yesterday.
The incident has raised concerns about body identification procedures and handling at mortuaries.
Family spokesperson, Kefuoe Ramatsoto, said they visited Thusananang Mortuary Service on Friday to identify and collect their loved one’s body. However, upon arrival, they were shocked to find the remains of an elderly man instead.
“The body we found was that of an old man. Our relative was not old and still had all his teeth,” Ms Ramatsoto said.
The family insisted that the deceased they had previously identified was a younger man and not the elderly person presented to them.
“They told us it was not our deceased and advised us to check other places. We were then directed to Mafeteng to look for the correct body,” Ms Ramatsoto said.
She said about eight family members were convinced that a mistake had been made. They travelled to Mafeteng and viewed a body that had just arrived at another mortuary, but it was not their relative. They later returned to Lekokoaneng and were informed that another body had been taken to Butha-Buthe for verification, but that too was not their loved one.
“It was around 5am (Saturday) when we received a call from the mortuary instructing us to come. When we arrived, they told us they had found our relative in Mafeteng.
“We took the body so we could bury him,” she said.
The family also expressed frustration over the disappearance of the identification tags.
“They told us that the tag bearing our loved one’s name might have fallen off or been damaged by ice or wet conditions.
“This whole thing has hurt us so much. As a family, we are heartbroken. We trusted the mortuary to handle everything properly, but this has shattered that trust,” Ms Ramatsoto said.
The manager of Thusanang Funeral Services, Motseki Ishmael, confirmed that the mix-up had occurred and admitted that the Ramatsoto family’s relative had gone missing from their care.
“This is the first time such a mistake has happened. We have been serving Basotho for three years and have never experienced an incident of this nature,” Mr Ishmael said.
He explained that the mortuary used paper tags to identify bodies and that the deceased’s tag became wet and detached.
“As a result, the body was mistakenly swapped with that of another deceased person from Mafeteng. We sincerely apologise to the Ramatsoto family for what happened,” he said.
Post Views: 259
