Nurse arrested after baby’s body went missing from mortuary

A nurse at Chitungwiza Central Hospital has been arrested after the body of an eight-month-old child went missing from the facility’s mortuary.

Munashe Ganyiwa, 32, who is a nurse, was attending to Emmanuel Charindapanze, who was admitted on Saturday, in a paediatric ward.

In the early hours of Sunday, Emmanuel experienced some hiccups and his mother Shamiso Nyause, 46, called for help.

Munashe came and pronounced Emmanuel dead.

Munashe removed all the clothes of the baby and gave them to Shamiso.

The body of the child was taken to the mortuary by another nurse.

On Monday, Shamiso and her husband, Givemore Charindapanze, went to the hospital to collect the body of their deceased child.

However, the mortuary attendant told them that the child’s body was not in the mortuary.

All the children’s bodies in the mortuary were taken out for identification by their parents but Emmanuel’s body could not be found.

The mortuary attendant then called the nurse who brought and booked the child’s body into the mortuary to help him find the missing body.

The nurse then told Shamiso and Givemore that she suspected the child’s body could have been cremated.

This led to the arrest of Munashe.

Harare provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Luckmore Chakanza, told H-Metro:

“Police arrested a health worker in connection with violating corpses in Chitungwiza.

“The parents failed to access their body at the mortuary.

“The complainants tried to make some enquiries with the hospital management, leading to the arrest.

“Investigations are continuing,” said Insp Chakanza.

The Herald