Mortuary Staff: Reeling Under Weight Of Dead Bodies And Hidden Secrets

Hyderabad:At Osmania General Hospital’s mortuary, a worker stepped out after handling a body. No mask and no signs of discomfort. “We’re vaccinated. It’s safe,” he said. His voice was not careless, just used to it.

From road accidents to suicides and violent crimes, the Gandhi and Osmania hospital mortuaries each deal with dozens of cases each day. But while systems exist to manage the bodies, those handling them often carry unseen burdens.

A forensic doctor with six years of experience at one of the mortuaries told Deccan Chronicle that the first few years in the mortuary were difficult to process mentally. “Most of the junior doctors feel overwhelmed. Some reported PTSD-like symptoms. Although we are trained to deal with it mentally, the initial few years are hard. To reimagine the body while doing a postmortem for a decomposed one takes a mental toll,” he said, adding just moments later, “But we get used to it. After a few years, you stop reacting.”

A staff member who unloads bodies at the mortuary said that while they are vaccinated to prevent any possible infections, little support is offered mentally. “We became tough through acceptance. My father worked here for nearly 30 years and still does night shifts. I did not want to leave him alone, so I work here too.”

A female guard at the Gandhi mortuary, Swathi Laxmi, described how her day begins. “My day starts at 8 am and I work until 3 pm. After my husband’s death, I began taking double shifts to support my children’s education. The hardest part is dealing with the families of the deceased. Many men hurl abuses at us. We can’t respond, no matter how frustrated we feel. After all, they’ve just lost a loved one,” she said.

Another female contract worker at the mortuary, who did not wish to be named, said, “We are women – not seen as capable of unloading heavy bodies – so we either get to guard outside, or clean the spilled blood inside.”

While some tend to desensitise, others turn to alcohol. A junior doctor, speaking off-the-record, said some workers consume alcohol, especially during the night shift, to deal with the smell of the mortuary.

A forensic expert from Gandhi Hospital told Deccan Chronicle that the job also comes with a lingering sense of guilt. “Sometimes, bodies are brought in as suspicious deaths. After the autopsy, it’s clear they were murdered. When the story about the death gets twisted over time, the guilt of knowing the truth and being powerless to act takes a deep emotional toll,” he said.

Speaking about the safety lapses in mortuaries, Dr Karthik Nagula, assistant professor at the Osmania Hospital Forensic Department, said, “We speak for the dead, but nobody cares. There aren’t enough funds allocated for the maintenance of these mortuaries. Freezers often break down and are too few in number, while the bodies just keep coming. Many remain unclaimed until the GHMC collects them all together after a week, but that doesn’t solve our problem.”

The lack of protective gear and risk-related support only worsens the situation. “All we wear is an apron,” Dr Nagula added. “That doesn’t protect us from infections. On top of that, we don’t receive any postmortem allowance for travelling to other districts to conduct postmortem examinations.”