Man Too Fat Morgue: 440-Pound Man Turned Away From Morgue For Being ‘Too Fat’

A dead man was deemed too fat by one morgue in Western Australia. According to The Huffington Post, the morgue was unable to accept the man’s body because he weighed 440 pounds. Apparently, the morgue didn’t have equipment large enough to hold the man’s body. Without being able to fit the man’s body into the appropriate compartment for preservation purposes, the morgue was forced to refuse the body, stirring an awful lot of controversy. Hedland Health Campus is now under fire from all angles.

Joanne Cummings, the co-owner of Pilbara Funeral Services in Port Hedland, spoke on the matter saying:

“[A staff member] walked out and looked at this gentleman in the back of the car and said: ‘He’s too fat, he can’t go in the fridge’. You can’t say things like that. It’s a load of crap … I could probably put a baby elephant in one of those fridges and it’d fit through the door, and they’re refusing entry for a human being.”

The man who was “too fat” for the morgue wasn’t the first body to be turned away. Now, new equipment that can handle bodies that weigh up to 660 pounds are being looked into so that this sort of thing doesn’t happen in the future. Once the man’s body was turned away, Miss Cummings was responsible for keeping it cool until alternate arrangements could be made. She says that she drove home with the body in her car for two hours. She then left her car running with the air conditioning on overnight, checking on the man every 30 minutes.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Cummings and her business partner were able to get a sea container for the body. This worked in keeping it cold until an embalmer came in.

Ron Wynn, the regional director of the WA Country Health Service, released the following statement:

“Staff will meet with the Pilbara Funeral Services to develop a formal agreement for receiving and storing deceased persons at Hedland Health Campus. It is imperative that at all times a deceased person is treated with the utmost care and respect and viewings are arranged so as not to cause distress and inconvenience to grieving families.”

The man deemed too fat for the Australia-based morgue wasn’t the only “body in a car” news story this month. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, a man recently drove from Arizona to Michigan with his girlfriend’s dead body in his car. It’s unknown if he cared about preserving her body or what condition her body was in when police caught up to the car.

[Photo courtesy of P.J.L Laurens / Wikimedia Commons]