Hilo hospital sues to get rid of body
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — Hilo Medical Center is suing to force the removal of a body left in the hospital morgue for more than two years.
The suit filed last week in 1st Circuit Court in Honolulu says "the remains are decomposing, causing a terrible stench and a health hazard within Hilo Medical Center."
Miles Takaaze, public affairs director for Hawai'i Health Systems Corp., said the odor is confined to the morgue area, and staff have taken steps to deal with the problem. The quasi-public hospital corporation owns and operates the hospital.
Takaaze said the body does not represent a risk to anyone's health, but its presence is affecting the staff. "It's a psychological vs. a physical health risk, knowing that the body is there," he said.
Under federal privacy laws, the hospital cannot release the name of the "deceased female" mentioned in the lawsuit or anything else about her, he said.
According to the lawsuit, the body was brought to the hospital Dec. 11, 2001, and placed in the basement morgue. The Honolulu court appointed Alvin Yoshitomi as special administrator of the woman's estate in mid-2003 and instructed him to "arrange for burial."
Despite 14 requests from the hospital, Hawai'i Health Systems Corp. and Clinical Laboratories of Hawai'i, which operates the morgue, the body has not been removed, Takaaze said.
Yoshitomi, who is not a relative of the dead woman, was unavailable for comment yesterday.
State law allows the hospital to make arrangements to dispose of bodies that are unclaimed and also provides for public money to pay for the disposal of bodies when the survivors cannot afford private burial.
Neither law applies in this case, Takaaze said, and the hospital has no authority to act in cases where the body has been claimed by survivors but not removed.
The lawsuit says the hospital corporation "has no adequate remedy at law" other than to sue Yoshitomi.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
