By Bisi Olominu

Mrs Tejumade Ariyo (not real name) had been battling with a strange disease for long. She had spent fortune on

the disease but it refused to be healed. There were no hospitals she had not visited, yet the disease could not be adequately diagnosed.
Ariyo was introduced to another hospital in Lagos, she went there, did many tests, spent another round of money and finally on that fateful day, Friday, March 17, 2019, she breath her last and died.
The family were totally confused, wept uncontrollable and when they gathered themselves some said autopsy should be conducted on the dead woman, so as, to know what really killed her and to serve as deterrent in the nearest future. This school of thought believed that the negligence of the hospital killed the woman and they wanted to use that to serve the hospital a great lesson.
The other school of thought believed that would be a waste of money and resources to do autopsy on a person that had died.
In Nigeria, going for autopsy to detect what killed loved ones has become an Hercules task.
Most people will not want the dead body of their dead person desecrated, but the truth is finding out what leads to an individual’s death has a lot of benefits. To do this, an autopsy is conducted.
An autopsy (post-mortem examination) is an examination of a dead body done by opening the body up and examining the organs physically. This is done in most cases to determine the cause, mode and manner of death, disprove pre-death diagnosis, evaluate drug strategy and for legal requirement.
This procedure is usually carried out by a pathologist. The 4 types of autopsy are clinical or hospital autopsy (diagnosis of diseases), medicolegal or forensic autopsy (for legal issues, e.g. homicidal cases), family autopsy, and academic autopsy.
Autopsies have been found to provide answers to unsolvable puzzles about what leads to deaths in many countries and this has been well appreciated and adopted because of its observed advantages. However, the idea of autopsy in developing countries are still in their neophyte stage and considered taboos in different environment due to many factors impeding its acceptance.
For instance, many people in an educated country like Nigeria with highly cosmopolitan people still cite religious and cultural beliefs as reasons for not seeing the need for an autopsy.
Many people simply believe a dead body should not be desecrated. Some religious beliefs demand immediate burial while some think an autopsy provides opportunity for ritualists.
In reality autopsies are very important!
Speaking with The Hope, Mrs Fawole Oladunni posited that conducting autopsy on a dead body was a mere wasting of money. According to her, this will bring hatred, animosity and disunity to the family which such family will difficult to come out of it.
Her words: ” Somebody died after wasting much money and you are now saying that autopsy must be conducted. Will the autopsy bring back the dead? Even if there is sinister motif concerning the death of the person, when you probe further, it will create hatred and animosity in the family”.
” I have the believe that we should allow the dead to rest instead of dissipating our energy on what kill the dead.”
To Toba Opaleye a resident of Akure, it is better to reserve what was left of his spending on his father’s burial than “waste” it on an autopsy to unravel the cause of his death.
Opaleye said that the 65-year-old man took ill on August 24, 2016, and was placed on some medications. His condition deteriorated just within three days later, prompting the family to rush him to nearby hospital.
Unfortunately, he died after he was brought into the emergency ward. While ruing the loss, the doctor asked if the family would request an autopsy, since the hospital was still in the process of diagnosing his condition before he died.
Opaleye first accepted to go for autopsy but immediately retracted the approval when he was told that it would cost N80,000 for a pathologist to unravel the cause of his death.
“How can I, I have just managed to pay the hospital bills, waste another N80,000 because I want to find out what killed my father. Though his death was painful to us, I convinced my family that it wasn’t necessary.”
Contributing to the issue, Jadesola Morenike said she could go for autopsy when the death of her loved one is in doubt and there are question marks concerning the death. She added that when circumstances sorrounding the death of a person is in doubt, the only way to resolve the issue is to conduct autopsy.
” I have seen a polygamous family that was teared apart by the death of the breadwinner who was poisoned by one of the wives just because the husband was no more going in with the wife. In order to attract the interest of the husband the wife went for love poison and used it in excess for her man. This man that was highly hypertensive died in the process. Controversy engulfed the family and it was through autopsy that the matter was settled.
” I am for autopsy when you are in doubt.’’