Brazil hospital morgue holds remains of 40 newborns and fetuses
The remains of 40 newborn babies and fetuses have been found abandoned in a Brazilian hospital morgue, some forgotten for years, authorities said.
The remains of 40 newborn babies and fetuses have been found abandoned in a Brazilian hospital morgue, some forgotten for years, authorities said.
Some of the corpses had been in a morgue refrigerator for as long as five years at the city-administered Pedro Ernesto Hospital in Rio de Janeiro.
Officials also found body parts which prosecutors said probably were left over from emergency amputations.
"It's like something from a horror film," prosecutor Ana Cristina Huth Macedo said. "Our goal is to give the bodies a dignified burial as soon as possible."
The hospital was known for its willingness to deliver high-risk births, which explained why so many babies would have died, she said.
The hospital's director, Rodolfo Acatuassu Nunes, told Brazilian television that the bodies had never been claimed by parents.
"It has to do with a social problem. People don't come back to get the body of their baby if it has died," he said.
Prosecutors have been unable to identify 15 of the bodies, and all the deceased infants will undergo genetic testing to determine who their parents were.
