The Greek debt crisis has given birth to a new social problem of macabre dimensions. The relatives of dead people prefer leaving the corpses of their beloved ones at hospital morgues rather than paying for the burial service.
According to the president of the Employees’ Union of Sotiria Hospital in Athens, Mr. Bassilis Koniaditis, the costly deterrent burial expenses are forcing the Greeks to leave their dead at the hospital.
In his interview on a Greek daily TV program, Mr. Koniaditis underlined that the hospital’s morgue had been holding the dead bodies of five Greeks and one foreign national since January. The relatives, who all reside in Athens, had been informed about the situation, but economic hardships would not allow them to take care of the deceased.
Mr. Koniadatis underlined that the hospital is trying to find a solution to the problem of the ‘abandoned’ bodies and is hoping that such incidents will not be repeated in the future. Two of the bodies have been buried in the Zografou Cemetery of Athens, but no solution has yet been found for the remaining three corpses left by the wayside of the hospital’s morgue.
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