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A shocking report from the Australian news outlet Business News claims that a man who was still alive was put into a body bag and transferred to the morgue.
Kevin Reid was receiving palliative care at Rockingham General Hospital when he was pronounced dead by his nurses on September 5. His body was then transported to the morgue, even though no doctor at the hospital had certified his death.
The next day, Reid's doctor went to the morgue to complete the death certificate. However, when he unzipped the body bag, he discovered evidence that Reid may have still been alive when he was put in the body bag.
"I believe the frank blood from a new skin tear, arm position, and eye signs were inconsistent with a person who was post-mortem on arrival at the morgue," the doctor wrote in his report to the coroner.
The doctor said that he refused a request from the coroner to backdate the death certificate and then contacted the head of his department. He has since resigned from his job due to the incident.
The coroner's office told the outlet that they are investigating the doctor's allegations.
"After receiving notification from a doctor at the Rockingham Hospital of the death of a 55-year-old man, the coroner's court on Monday, October 3, commenced to investigate whether the death is a reportable death," a spokesperson said via 7News.
Officials at the hospital vehemently denied the accusations that Reid was alive when he was transported to the morgue. According to the Daily Mail, South Metropolitan Health Service chief executive Paul Forden said that the investigation is not about whether Reid was dead. Instead, it was focused on the protocols following his death.
'Please let me be really clear," Forden said. "The investigation is into the protocols following the death of a patient, not into whether that patient was deceased."