Numerous bodies were transported in an open pickup truck bed to the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office Sunday — with a worker caught stepping on the deceased as he unloaded them.
A photographer with The Philadelphia Inquirer captured the horrific delivery of up to six corpses from a hospital to an area with several refrigerated trailers that the city obtained to help store extra bodies during the coronavirus outbreak.
The deceased in the pickup truck were inside white body bags and covered in mats, according to photos published by the newspaper.
It’s unclear if the bodies were people who died of coronavirus, as the refrigeration trailers also hold patients who died of other causes.
James Garrow, a spokesman for Philadelphia’s public health department, on Tuesday said the delivery “is not normal or acceptable.”
Garrow said there are “long-standing transportation protocols” for the transfer of bodies from hospitals to the city medical examiner’s office that “were not followed.”
“The Health Department is appalled that this happened, and strongly reminded the referring hospital of the existing protocols,” he said.
With Post Wires