Hospital collapse forces families to take bodies to morgue in Venezuela

Venezuela receives help from other countries
A truck filled with bodies in white bags waited outside the Caracas morgue this Saturday (27). With hospitals overwhelmed after the earthquakes in Venezuela, families of the deceased take their loved ones to the place designated for bodies.
The earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 that hit the region on Wednesday (24) and left 1,430 dead, more than 3,000 injured and 3,100 people homeless due to the disaster, according to the government's balance sheet at 2:20 pm.
Yessica Mendoza arrived at the morgue in the early hours of the morning with her daughter's body. She had to transport him in a specific car due to the lack of funeral services.
Her daughter, Yesimar Rodríguez, 25, and her son, Jhomel Anaya, 26, were trapped under the rubble when the building where they lived collapsed on the day of the tragedy that turned their city, La Guaira, into the epicenter of the earthquake.
"We had to remove them ourselves; no one helped," said the mother, of 43 years old.
In just one hour, AFP saw at least three pickup trucks arrive at the morgue carrying bodies covered with bags and sheets.
As they passed, the vehicles left an odor of finishing.
An employee, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak, said that at least 200 bodies had arrived at this morgue, headquarters of Venezuela's National Legal Medicine Service, since Friday (26).
Mendoza reported that he decided to take his daughter to the morgue. because at the Catia la Mar hospital, in La Guaira, "the dead were on the floor".
The body of Yessica Mendoza's daughter was found on Friday; the body of the genus was discovered the day before.
"We are going to cremate them because they are already at a very advanced stage and we cannot make a velvet," said the woman, with deep eyes.
People receive treatment in a field hospital after the earthquakes in La Guaira, Venezuela, on June 24, 2026
REUTERS/Maxwell Briceno

Source: G1