[nickydwuk]

Different cultures mourn differently and some cultures have to bury their dead within 24 hours. This caused a problem for me one weekend when I worked at the hospital. A muslim lady passed away on the Saturday morning with her whole family around. As it was the weekend there were hardly any doctors or porters around. We needed a doctor to certify the death and then to fill out the forms so the body could be released to the mortuary. By the time he doctor was available to sign the release form it was the evening and then we had to locate a porter to take her to the mortuary. The family were getting very distressed because they wanted her home to mourn before she was buried/cremated the next day. When the porter finally arrived he said that as it was the weekend he could not release the body to the undertakers at 9pm and would have to be the next day. This was very traumatic for the family and I spent hours on the phone trying to resolve the issue. I went off duty before it was resolved. As Brits we are used to waiting over a week for a burial so to rush it through like this caused a lot of distress.

I suppose if we are to live in another country such as NZ we should learn their ways so we can help support those going through this process.