Red Cross provides TU Forensic Department with freezer for storing bodies

KATHMANDU, July 3: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has handed over a new external refrigerator unit to Tribhuvan University's Forensic Medicine Department (FMD) on Friday to support the authorities concerned to ensure dignified management of dead bodies.

The new facility will be a great relief for the TU Teaching Hospital (TUTH), which had to take in a high number of bodies in the aftermath of devastating earthquakes.

The new facility provided by the ICRC, with the support of Japanese Red Cross Society, has doubled the storage capacity at the TU's FMD.

The ICRC says it is also supporting the Forensic Medicine Department of TUTH to refurbish two cold rooms as external facility, which once completed, would make it possible to properly store up to 200 bodies.Speaking at the handover ceremony of the new facility in Kathmandu, Deputy Head of ICRC Delegation in Nepal, Alfredo Mallet said that dignified management of the dead has always been a key element of disaster response for the ICRC. He hoped that the facility would better equip the Forensic Medicine Department towards the dignified management of the dead as such act can have a lot of cultural, legal and human consequences for the families and relatives for many years to come.

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