"Does that make sense? It can't be, common sense..."
So was the city hall and the city hall.
At a local funeral home, 13 bodies were left at room temperature and some of them were badly decomposed.
At first I thought it could be because of the response over the handset.
It's not likely to happen, and it's not easy to imagine, so it was natural to be surprised no matter how many people in charge were.
The problem is that these reactions are repeated.
The ward office and city hall continued to cover the missing parts, and each time they reported it, they responded in the same way.
'Oh, these people make things easy.'
It was then that I understood.
This is the reason why two funeral homes in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, were caught for leaving the bodies at room temperature for a week.
There are a lot of things that were not included in the report, so I thought I should let you know at least this way, in case there was no reflection or improvement, so I wouldn't feel ashamed of having done a 'bad inspection' twice for the sake of appearance.
This is because both residents and citizens expect 'common sense to deal with things' rather than the vague belief that "this cannot be done with common sense."
(Before we begin, I hope that most of the local government officials, who will take responsibility for their work, will not feel sorry for this post. I am always grateful for the hard work.)
March 29th and 30th, <SBS 8 News> dealt with a funeral home in Deokyang-gu, Goyang-si, where 13 bodies were kept at room temperature.
It is said that some of the bodies were so badly decomposed during the process that the smell was vibrated.
The funeral home said that they tried to remove the smell by spraying fabric deodorant.
We also secured testimony that he kept his mouth shut so that the bereaved family would not know.
When this information was discovered by the local ward office through SBS coverage, the company even lied to the ward office, saying that the coffin with the body was transferred to a vehicle and "processed normally."
This fact was also revealed during the interview process.
The ward office was notified again, and during the on-site inspection conducted again, it was caught again.
The ward office imposed an administrative fine of 1.5 million won on the funeral home that violated the funeral law, and requested the police to investigate the company that interfered with the inspection, such as deceiving public officials.
Gyeonggi Paju Police Station launched an investigation.
Up to this point, <SBS 8 News> reported.
The beginning of the coverage of "a badly putrefy smell"
The interview began on March 25th.
While dealing with the explosion of deaths due to COVID-19, I received a report.
The informant said, "Several corpses must have been decomposed at room temperature, and the smell was so strong that it was impossible to enter the museum.
The contents of the report, however, were not specific enough to be determined to be true.
found the scene.
I spent several days wandering around the funeral home.
I met several people who were directly or indirectly aware of the situation, going in and out of the funeral home, and inquired about the situation.
There were a lot of people who were conscious of the problem about the situation they were going to keep than they thought.
In addition to testimonies, we have obtained several images of bodies that have been severely decomposed.
Some looked so serious they couldn't believe they had been left at room temperature for just a few days.
The first inspection that only believed in the word “empty coffin” and turned around
On the evening of March 24, before the interview, I found out that the ward office had gone to an on-site inspection.
At this time, the inspection was made after the body was left at room temperature in the mortuary of another funeral home in the building the day before and was caught.
Examining the condition of the mortuary had to be a major inspection task.
As a guideline, the body must be kept at 4 degrees below zero.
There were only six low-temperature refrigerators in the mortuary of this funeral home.
The rest of the coffins were stacked in layers on the floor of the mortuary at room temperature.
It was surprising that no coffins containing more than 10 bodies were caught.
At that time, the ward office staff said that they believed only the words, "It's an empty coffin" and "It's a coffin to go out tomorrow," and just turned around.
When asked for an explanation, the person in charge said, "But it is impossible to open the coffin without the consent of the bereaved family."
It was understandable.
If a public official who came out of the inspection opened the coffin where my father and mother were lying without asking for the consent of the family, it would be news in itself.
That is why the first report on March 29th did not take issue with the fact that it was not found at the time of inspection and was simply too much.
"I dealt with it normally" I only believed the words
When it was confirmed by various testimonies and evidence that the funeral home had left the body at room temperature, it was notified to the ward office and city hall on March 28.
On that day, the ward office staff made a second on-site inspection and confirmed that 13 bodies had been left at room temperature above 10 degrees.
A corrective order was issued to keep the temperature of the mortuary below 4 degrees, and a fine was also imposed for violating the sanitary management standards for the body.
On the morning of March 29, the next day, the ward office and city hall staff visited the funeral home again.
The 13 bodies in the morgue had disappeared.
The company said, "The 13 bodies have already gone through the burial and cremation procedures and no remains."
The staff believed this.
No effort was made to check the documents that would have been left if the bodies of the 13 wards had been disposed of normally.
In the afternoon of the same day, they even tried to release a press release saying, "The 13 corpses were normally handled at the funeral home discovered through media reports. We will prevent this from happening in the future."
Just before the press release was distributed, the distribution was canceled when a reporter informed, "There are several bodies lying in the car in the parking lot, so please go out again."
Reporters were also present at the site of the third inspection.
Several city and city officials came out.
The company endured that the car door could not be opened.
Waiting time continued as persuasion did not work.
Eventually, the company pulled the vehicle and left the funeral home.
An employee of the ward office said that he confirmed that the bodies that had been moved in the vehicle had been handed over to a funeral home in Yongin.
Instead of believing only the word “processed normally,” he immediately requested documents from the company,
"It's not an investigation matter..." There wasn't enough confirmation
After the second report was published on March 30, there was an outrage over the atrocities at the funeral home.
In particular, the voice of resentment was loud at the scene where the coffin with the body was laid flat in the back of the vehicle.
On the same day, the Ministry of Health and Welfare sent an official letter to 226 local governments across the country to conduct on-site inspections of 1,135 funeral homes.
An official from the Ministry of Health and Welfare explained, "The state of the burial of the body will be quickly checked for a week, and if it is revealed that there is a crime, as in the case known through the news, administrative measures and criminal charges may be taken."
Goyang City Hall issued a press release on March 31, the day after SBS' continuous report, saying that it had requested the investigation of the funeral home to the Gyeonggi Goyang Police Station.
The charge was one violation of the burial law for not sanitary management of the body.
However, the next day, the person in charge of the investigation at the Goyang Police Station in Gyeonggi Province said in a phone call with SBS, "I told the ward office the day before that violating the Trade Act is a matter of fines, not criminal punishment, and therefore an investigation cannot be conducted."
I raised the issue with the ward office and city hall whether the press release that widely informed that the investigation was commissioned even though it could not be an investigation in the first place was for deception, or whether they really did not know that the investigation was not successful.
Either way was a problem.
The person in charge apologized, saying, "I will request another investigation by adding the charge of obstruction of public service (possible criminal punishment) for falsely obstructing the crackdown."
He also repeatedly asked for understanding, saying, "I will conduct on-site inspections of 9 funeral homes in the city every day," and "I will take good care of it so that there are no deficiencies in the future."
"This is a matter that has now been finalized, so I will make sure that this does not happen again in the future," he said.
"Nothing has been finalized right now," he replied.
(There remains a question of whether additional measures would have been taken if the police had not checked and questioned it, if they had just passed on it.)
Is this a problem only here?
Usually, the body is stored in the mortuary at the funeral home at a temperature of 4 degrees or less until after the funeral and heading to the crematorium.
If a three-day market is held, the burial place is set up on the first day, the body is sacrificed, and the next day, a funeral ceremony is held in the presence of the bereaved family.
After the coronation ceremony, the coffin with the body is returned to the mortuary, and the next day, it is moved to the crematorium for the funeral.
The reason that this 'normal' thing doesn't work these days is that the number of deaths due to COVID-19 has risen sharply and there is a shortage of cremation facilities.
Before Corona 19, the average daily death toll in Korea was in the 700-800 range.
The daily death toll from COVID-19 is now more than 400.
Today (5th) 209 people, six days ago 432 people…
.
The average daily death toll from COVID-19 in the past week is 320.
Experts predict that the number of 'COVID-19-related deaths' could more than double if the number of excess deaths directly or indirectly related to COVID-19 is added.
This is because cases such as those who die before being confirmed or die from complications after being cured are not included in the COVID-19 death statistics of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In other words, assuming that 640 people, twice the daily average of 320, die from Corona 19 every day, the existing cremation and funeral facilities will not be able to handle it.
The government is taking measures one after another to catch up with the excess demand, but the atmosphere in the field is that it is not enough to prevent a funeral riot.
In this situation, blind spots can appear any number of times.
The reason why a funeral home can't be blamed for losing conscience is that it has a structural background that can't keep up with demand.
In response to the question, 'Is this only a problem here?', several funeral directors estimated, "There are many funeral homes that lack low-temperature refrigerators, and there will be cases where the bodies are left at room temperature little by little without knowing it."
This means that there may be more corpses left at room temperature undetected.
Funeral officials agree that such a funeral riot was unprecedented before the COVID-19 crisis.
However, waiting for this situation to pass quickly is irresponsible.
We must not forget that each corpse that decays after being left at room temperature is a family we have loved and devoted our whole life to.
As if there is a dignified story of each person in the figure of 'COVID-19 deaths in one day'.
There is a saying that you can see the level of a society in its attitude towards death.
Where are we really going?