Sri Lanka Health Ministry explaining the much lowered death toll in Easter Sunday bombing attacks said the initial assessment of the death toll was 290, not 359 as media reported.
According to a statement issued by Director General of Health Service, Dr. Anil Jasinghe, more than 485 people wounded in the terrorist attacks on last Sunday (April 21) have been admitted to the Colombo National Hospital, Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital, Batticaloa Teaching Hospital, and to the Negombo Base Hospital.
The number of injured now has come down to 149 by 10 am Thursday.
Out of the more than 485 admitted, only six patients have died, the Dr. Jasinghe said and added that only a few of the injured succumbing to their injuries is a reason to be proud of Sri Lanka’s health service amid the tragic situation.
Following the attacks, on 22 April, the number of people killed in the attacks has been announced as more than 290. This number consisted of 29 deaths at Batticaloa Teaching Hospital, 102 at Negombo Base Hospital, 7 at Colombo north teaching hospital, 3 at Colombo South teaching Hospital and 140 at the main mortuary in Colombo National Hospital
In bomb blasts like this, the body of the deceased is massively damaged and some bodies will be fragmented and will not be easily identifiable as whole bodies. Since there is an uncertainty in counting the number of bodies the death toll has always been expressed as an approximate number.
Apart from the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer’s mortuary, all other hospitals have handed over the bodies to the relatives at the earliest. Although the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer, the specialist doctors, magistrates and other staff, rendered due to the complexities of the bodies brought into the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer’s mortuary, releasing the bodies to the kin will take relatively a longer time.
This is due to the fact that all bodies of foreign nationals were brought into the Colombo National Hospital and the bodies of the people died in the attacks on the three hotels were more damaged relative to other places.
Furthermore, relatives of the deceased foreign nationals have to arrive in Sri Lanka to hand over the bodies. In the event of if no relatives come, the body has to be identified by the respective diplomatic missions. Although foreign nationals can be identified by the complexion, that cannot be applied to people form Asian countries
In these circumstances, when the bodies at the Colombo’s main judicial medical mortuary processed by the complex procedure and the initial assessment of fragmented bodies has been corrected, the number of bodies has been reduced to 114 from the earlier reported 140.
Similarly, though the body count was recorded as 29 in the Batticaloa Teaching hospital, it has been reduced to 26 during reassessment.
Accordingly, the number of deaths reported from last Sunday terrorist attacks has been reduced to about 253 from the initial recorded 290, the official said. The number of bodies was not about 359 as media reported, Dr. Jasinghe said.
