Digital identification of deceased COVID patients helps next-of-kin cope with loss

KUALA LUMPUR: Grief and sadness surely overcome us when we receive news of the death of a family member. What's more when we learn the death is due to the COVID-19 virus as it means we are unable to give a fitting final goodbye up close to our loved ones due to the standard operating procedures (SOP) involved.

Aware of the grief and emotional burden borne by the family of the deceased, the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur temporary one-stop centre (Pusara WPKL) and National Sports Institute in Jalan Raja Muda, Kampung Baru, here, have undertaken an initiative to introduce a method to allow a digital identification process of the deceased.

Director of operations, Dr Ahmad Hafizam Hasmi, said his team understood the painful situation families of COVID-19 patients had to deal with as they were not allowed to visit their loved ones in hospital, and now in death, were also unable to bid them a final goodbye.

"Realising this, Pusara WPKL provides a body identification facility where one heir, who is fully clothed in PPE (personal protective equipment), will be allowed to perform the physical identification in an identification tent, while two other heirs would be allowed to view the face of the deceased through a television screen provided in a special area," he told Bernama, recently.

He said the special area was equipped with a digital identification system through a display on a TV screen connected to a high-definition, closed-circuit television camera, allowing heirs to record or make live video calls to share with other family members who are not present.

Dr Ahmad Hafizam, a forensic doctor from the National Institute of Forensic Medicine Department, Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL), who has 14 years of experience, said Pusara WPKL started operations on July 20 and has managed a total of 1,058 remains of COVID-19 patients so far.

"The 24-hour centre receives the remains of the deceased from HKL and is capable of managing the delivery of a maximum of 30 bodies of COVID-19 Muslim patients and 20 non-Muslims at a time.

"We are equipped with five cold storage containers that can accommodate 225 corpses with the current utilisation rate of almost 70 per cent. The handing over of COVID-19 remains to the next of kin is usually done from 7 am to 6 pm," he added.

Meanwhile, a volunteer Aliimran Nordin, 34, who was assigned to care for the family members of deceased COVID-19 patients, said he could feel the grief borne by the next of kin while performing the identification process through the facility provided.

"There are also heirs, being quarantined because of having had close contact with the deceased, but could make the identification through video calls," he said, adding that each family was only given five minutes to make the identification.

For Mudzakkir Mohd Zahidi, 30, who lost his 54-year-old father, Mohd Zahidi Mohd Zain to COVID-19, said he used the Google Meet application on his handphone during the digital identification process to enable more relatives, especially those far away, to see the face of his deceased father.

"We are aware that the handling of the remains of COVID-19 patients is different and we cannot see them face to face due to travel restrictions but at least with this method we can have a last look before the final rites," said Mudzakkir, who lives in Shah Alam, Selangor.

-- BERNAMA