Saturday, July 26, 2008 Mobile morgue to arrive next month for forensic site
WHAT some people don’t know is that the mobile morgue arriving all the way from Norway next month is actually a mobile hospital.
Or a mobile clinic, a mobile infirmary, a mobile dental clinic, a mobile office, a mobile canteen, a mobile storage space and the list just goes on.
Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) specialist Torkjel Rygnestad explained that depending on the needs that are to be addressed, the mobile hospital could be converted into virtually anything.
“Because it is mobile, it can be assembled quickly, used quickly and operated quickly,” said Rygnestad.
Disaster
And if the mobile hospital would be dismantled and stored properly, it can be reused.
The warranty of the mobile hospital would run for 25 years, Rygnestad said.
The mobile hospital arriving in the country would come in various “elements” that could be set up in a way as seen fit to address the needs of the situation.
He said that a mobile hospital similar to the one arriving next month was used by DVI experts in the aftermath of the tsunami in Phuket, Thailand.
Rygnestad explained that they set up the mobile hospital in such a way that they had a quality control center, a site for postmortem examination, a cantina and a base of operations.
Once the mobile hospital will arrive in Cebu, Rygenstad said they will set up their forensic site in a similar fashion as to the operation site in Phuket, Thailand.
Facilities
Initially laying out the plans, Rygnestad said the forensic site at the Cebu International Port (CIP) will have two examination sites, water closets, showers, a septic tank, a canteen, a working office, and other forensic facilities.
Rygenstad said the site will be divided into two areas, one that would be clean and free from contamination and the other would be a working site.
But once the forensic site will be set up at the CIP, the DVI team said it would be made off-limits to visitors, even to the families and relatives of the victims of the mv Princess of the Stars tragedy.
By making the site off-limits, the processing of more than 800 bodies expected to arrive in Cebu once the vessel will be refloated will go on unhampered.
Identification
While the refloating of the vessel will be completed in two to three months, Rygnestad assured the public that the forensic site will be fully operational before the refloating.
“We’ll have it ready before it is refloated,” he said.
Rygnestad said that the DVI team of Singapore is ready to come to Cebu once the DVI process would start at the forensic site.
Once identification of the bodies start, identifications would be accurate and no wrong releases will happen.
“To give a wrong release would be just horrible,” he said.
Though Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has turned down the International Police’s (Interpol) request to fund P1.7 million worth of equipment and supplies for the forensic site, Philippine Center on Transnational Crime-Visayas Field Office Chief Supt. Anthony Obenza said that other agencies have pledged their support in funding the equipment.
“We have agencies that have already pledged that they will send their support for the forensic site,” said Obenza. (EPB)
