Wrong body buried in Berbice funeral parlour mix-up

A grieving family is left frustrated and traumatised after there was a mix-up at the Persaud’s funeral home in New Amsterdam, Berbice where two bodies were misplaced with one wrongfully buried. 

The mix-up was discovered on Saturday morning when a family visited the home to prepare the body of their 79-year-old relative Mohabir Rangasammy, ahead of a funeral later in the day. 

Rangasammy died at the New Amsterdam hospital last Sunday. 

The funeral home, however, handed over the body of Rangasammy to another family and he was buried four days ago. 

Amit Ramnarine, Rangasammy’s 39-year-old nephew, told News Room that the funeral for his uncle was scheduled for Saturday. As such, relatives visited the parlour at around 07:30 hrs to bathe and prepare the body. 

Ramnarine, however, said when they turned up and entered the room where the deceased was laid out on the table to be prepared, they noticed that it was not their relative. 

As such, the staff at the funeral home were alerted. 

“When they come, they said that is all the dead they have here and they didn’t have no funeral for the week”, a baffled Ramnarine said. 

Subsequently, he began making more inquiries and someone called and informed the family that there was a funeral at the parlour on Tuesday. 

“When we do inquire, they gave those persons our body,” Ramnarine related. 

According to Ramnarine, the family is traumatised over the entire experience, noting that his uncle did not deserve this. He stated that relatives who flew in from overseas are now unable to pay their final respects. 

The man also said that the family is appalled at the actions of the funeral home, deeming this both careless and unprofessional. 

The matter has since been reported to the police and the family is now seeking the services of an attorney with the intention to sue the funeral home. The funeral home has not offered any apology, Ramnarine said. 

He also related that the family will be moving to exhume the body of their relative to cremate him, since that was his dying wish. 

Meanwhile, Ramnarine explained that the man’s body that is currently at the parlour has now been positively identified by his son.