It is always sad when one loses a loved one but when the corpse cannot be found after all the necessary preparations have been done, then it becomes a double agony for family members.
That was exactly what happened to a family in Sunyani when the corpse of the late 56-year-old Solomon Kwabena Korang, (aka Degor) vanished from the Best Care Mortuary when they went for it for burial and funeral rites.
The entire family was thus thrown into shock with some of them going on air to express disappointment about the turn of events after they had spent a huge amount of money to prepare for the funeral and burial rites for Korang.
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But after the body had been mistakenly collected by a different family from Chiraa near Sunyani and buried for 18 days, the mistake was detected, leading to the exhumation of Korang’s body on August 21, 2018.
The Director of morgue of the facility, Mr Boakye Danquah, explained after the mistake had been detected, that the two bodies have a striking resemblance and that officials on duty that day should have done further checks before releasing the body to the family from Chiraa for burial.
According to him, due to the way bodies kept at the facility were treated, Korang’s body was intact three weeks after it had been buried when it was exhumed.
The body was sent back to the mortuary, while the family re-scheduled the date for its re-burial and funeral rites in Sunyani.
The Best Care Mortuary facility has accepted the blame and has since apologised to the two families for the blunder.
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The private mortuary facility, situated at Mantukwa in the Sunyani West District, which was inaugurated recently, has a capacity to keep 2,000 bodies
Re-burial and funeral rites
Last Friday, Korang’s body was re-laid in state at Area 2, Sunyani near Hon Yaw Brenya’s Street, for his second final funeral rites within a period of three weeks.
The body as it lay in state for the second time when The Mirror visited the family house, did not look like it had been exhumed, while family members wailed uncontrollably.
A spokesperson for the family, Mr Kusi Sakabo told The Mirror that “We are happy the body of our kinsman has finally been found”.
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According to him, he went through an ordeal after the body got lost as some of the youth in the family accused him of conniving with officials of the mortuary to sell the body for GH¢20,000 for rituals.
He explained that in one instance, some of the youth attacked him by throwing stones during which a 36-year-old mason, Obeng Asiama-Kyeremeh, who was passing by was injured and rushed to the Sunyani Regional Hospital, where he was treated and discharged.
The late Korang, who was a farmer, left behind seven children.
