Hospital sends wrong corpse to funeral in central Thailand

The wrong corpse turned up at a funeral in Prachin Buri province in central Thailand yesterday. Both the hospital and the deceased’s brother have taken responsibility for the mishap.

Yesterday, relatives waited at Wat Sawang Arom temple in Kabin Buri district to receive the body of 58 year old Somnuk Kongto who sadly died in an accident.

Somnuk’s brother picked up Somnuk’s body from the morgue at Chaophraya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital and brought it to the temple for religious ceremonies to be carried out.

Relatives instantly knew the corpse they received was not Somnuk when the body bag was unzipped. The dead woman looked younger than Somnuk, had fairer skin, and did not look like she had been in an accident.

The family called staff at the hospital’s morgue who realised they had made a mistake. The morgue told them they had accidentally given them the body of a 33 year old woman from Suphan Buri province in central Thailand. The family set off for the hospital with the unknown corpse.

At that time, the family of the 33 year old woman were on their way to the hospital to pick up the corpse of their relative. Both families arrived at the same time and the corpses were swapped back and given to their respective families.

Somnuk’s brother took partial responsibility for the incident because he said he did not thoroughly check that the hospital had handed him the right corpse before he left. He said he did look at the body but said the woman had a similar face to Somnuk. He said he did not check thoroughly because he was in a rush.

Deputy Director of Chaophraya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital Dr Chatchai Klaisuban expressed his condolences for what had happened.

The hospital questioned the staff at the morgue about what happened. The staff said they mixed up the corpses because they looked similar and handed the wrong corpse over to Somnuk’s brother, who did not realise it wasn’t his relative until he arrived at the temple.

The hospital said they would pay for any expenses caused by the incident.