With a medical chief now fully certified to practice forensic studies, the one-room morgue installed in a spare room at the Chapala Civil Protection and Fire Department base is finally ready to go into service.
The facility has not been utilized since a soft opening and formal inauguration ceremony held last October. At that time the tiny Sala de Necropsias (autopsy theater) was only partially equipped with a steel surgical table and other basic furnishings. But the main hold-up was the absence of qualified personnel.
Last week, Chapala medical director Miguel Angel Ruiz Morales completed an eight-month course of specialized training at the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences (IJCF). He received his official certification Wednesday, June 17, presented by IJCF regional coordinator Raul Arizaga Jimenez and the agency’s forensic attorney Jose Antonio Villaseñor Martinez, with Mayor Joaquin Huerta as a witness. Ruiz is now authorized to practice post-mortems as well as other types of studies to define causes of bodily injury and detect signs of rape or child abuse.
The local morgue will be used for performing autopsies on individuals who die in accidents or from natural causes, Arizaga explained. Bodies of persons killed in acts of criminal violence will be transported to more sophisticated IJCF installations in Guadalajara or Ocotlan. Whatever essential equipment that was lacking would be delivered by the end of the week, the official said, noting that arrangements to provide a vehicle and an on-staff criminologist are still pending.
The Chapala morgue will handle cadavers retrieved by ambulances in the immediate Chapala area and several neighboring municipalities, eliminating common delays for IJCF vehicles and personnel to arrive from more distant localities. Local post-mortem services will come as a relief to families who often suffer hardships in recuperating a dead relative for funeral and burial services, on top of the grief of losing a loved one.
Still on the drawing board are plans for building a permanent and fully staffed Chapala-based IJCF offshoot that will be equipped to carry out a full range of forensic exams, such as collection and identification of fingerprints, blood and DNA samples, ballistic tests and other crime scene evidence.