Aftermath of tsunami in Galle
31/Mar/2009
Management of dead and missing: Aftermath tsunami in Galle RuwanpuraP. Rohana, Mahinda Hettiarachchia, Muditha Vidanapathiranab and Shelton Pereraa
To be published in: Legal Medicine
Abstract
Tsunami on 26th December 2004 which
affected the entire costal belt of Sri Lanka caused over 30,000 deaths
and about 8000 disappearances. The Forensic Unit of the Karapitiya
Teaching Hospital alone handled over 1100 deaths, of which about 450
unidentified bodies were dispatched for mass burial, after recording
external appearances and all other important personal data, which
helped us to establish identity of another 120 victims within next
6 weeks. The visiting forensic team from Colombo, arrived on 27th,
assisted us in recording details of 1500 victims of “Peraliya” railway
incident. Unfortunately, they were only able to record 250 cases due to
pressure from the public and political interference. Our approach to
management of tsunami victims was based on recovery and identification
of injured and deceased persons, immediate medical care, storage of
dead bodies my mass embalming, detailed recording of all unidentified
bodies and disposal in mass graves.
Article Preprint: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.legalmed.2009.01.052
(Tags: cases, dvi)