I'm wondering how she was discovered.
I don't know. I think she was put into the temporary cold storage on the "red" shelf whatever it is (I could not find it out. If someone young dies in the hospital, autopsy is warranted? So I assume, that shelf was not in a freezer). And maybe it was eventually found the usual way, inevitably, since it was not a freezer? It was an additional storage building, as I have read.
I suspect, all wires were crossed in this case. All we know that a young woman suffering from diabetes type I for over 20 years, has gone into a major medical center for an acute diabetes-related episode. Then she called mom asking to pick her up. The mom was told that the daughter had left against medical advice. I think she told the staff she wanted to leave, we don't know if she was not happy with care, or hypoglycemic brain, or what. I suspect till this moment, the story is straight. JMO - the documents about leaving AMA were prepared. Here, the things get more strange.
Did she sign them, put her clothes on, then suddenly died? Probably, she did not even leave the ward as any sudden death in the waiting area would be witnessed by the visitors. (Anyhow, this is what i assume.) What happened after that? Was a code called? It is an event that should be registered. Was the code and the death registered? There should be the document. Did they forget to enter the code into the chart? Was she in hospital clothes? Or own ones? Who took her to the morgue?
She was quietly moved to the morgue, there are procedures for it, but somehow, the old AMA paperwork was not changed. Was it around the change of shifts? This can explain the mess. (And then, all the next shift has is "left AMA" documents, and this is what they tell the mother. It is not impossible.)
Now, that death certificate that was filled a year later is a violation but also an odd way bureaucracy works. "If someone dies in the hospital, death certificate has to be filled". So they did it.
Never mind that it is a year overdue, never mind that the cause of death can't be even determined, never mind that the police has to be called ASAP, never mind that each step now is a huge ? ? ? - who cares... If a paper is not filled, it hasn't happened. And this is what her mom and relatives are presented with, this death certificate filled a year later. Poor family.
Moreover, the patients of the hospital are traumatized, because they now think that below them, there was an unattended, decaying body. The staff, too, those who are not involved. It is unpleasant and scary, tbh. Just think of how everyone feels.
The problem is, with the obvious level of disorganization, who can even tell what happened? I am thinking - what if, indeed, there was a SK masking as an orderly in the hospital? He could have come into the ward, strangled her, put on a special gurney and transported to the morgue? Not the most likely event, probably, the death was natural given her diagnosis, but a year later, who can even say, no? Anything from the cameras has disappeared over one year, so no one can be too sure what had happened.
I can even imagine that the nurse who made her sign AMA papers and later came and didn't see the patient could have been confused, but that question, who registered the death, who took the body downstairs, why they put her into an additional storage? - all has to be answered. I think a detective is warranted.
(And unless the person is checked out of the hospital by the staff, she is not checked out. And if she left, because waiting might be too long, the security has to check the cameras verifying that she, indeed, has left and gone out.)
www.theguardian.com
