NYC Coronavirus Victims Are Being Forklifted Into Makeshift Refrigerated Truck Morgues

A new video shows a hospital in Brooklyn using a forklift to transfer the bodies of coronavirus victims into refrigerated trucks being used as temporary morgues. 

The video, posted on Facebook by a user named John Lee, was taken outside Brooklyn Hospital Center. Lee said, “They’re putting the bodies in an 18-wheeler, y’all.” Lee says, adding. “Please stay inside. This is for real.”

Another video uploaded to YouTube shows a line of gurneys outside Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical center. The person who took the video, who appears to be a hospital worker, is heard saying, “This is ridiculous … There’s a truck that we’re going to put the f—ing bodies in, bro.”

A spokeswoman for Maimonides Medical Center told the New York Daily News that it “regrets that anyone was able to obtain video of this nature.”

“We’re working very hard to provide accurate accounts of all the good work being done to care for COVID patients, and the stories of many people who have recovered and gone home,” she said. 

A Brooklyn Hospital Center representative said that their workers were “following protocols established by public health officials,” and said that the refrigerated truck was asking as a morgue, “needed to accommodate the tragic spike in deaths, placing a strain on the entire system of care — from hospitals to funeral homes.”

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“Grieving families cannot quickly make arrangements, and their loved ones who have passed are remaining in hospitals longer, thus the need for this accommodation,” the Brooklyn Hospital Center representative said. “We ask our community to be respectful during this time as we remain — more than ever — committed to Keeping Brooklyn Healthy.”

Article by Anacaona Rodriguez Martinez