Dead bodies stack up in university medical faculty due to 'lack of staff'
Tuesday, May 20, 2014 @ 10:43 AM
BODIES donated to medical science have been piling up out of control due to staff shortages at a Madrid college.
Over 250 corpses used by undergraduates studying to be doctors at the Complutense University were reportedly stored 'without monitoring or hygiene measures in place' rather than being submerged in formaldehyde or frozen, as they should have been.
Sources from the university say government funding cuts in education at all levels has meant they have been unable to replace staff who leave, and have been forced to make redundancies.
As a result, there were not enough employees to enable them to keep on top of the body situation.
Madrid Complutense University has criticised reports of a 'horror house' and said photos leaked to the media 'give a distorted impression of reality'.
They say the situation is now under control and the bodies are being dealt with accordingly.
The department of human anatomy and embryology says only around 100 are now left, and they are all identified and properly stored.
But people who believe that by donating their body to medical science upon their deaths they will save their family money in funeral costs are mistaken: once students and researchers have finished with the corpses, they are returned to the next of kin to be buried or cremated, which costs the same as if they had never been previously donated.
Read article at thinkSPAIN.com