by: Hendra J. Kaede *)
Just say his name is Pak Gondrong (not his real name). Age approaching a head of five. He is very brave, fearless, especially when it comes to occultism.
It has been several years changing assignments in a government hospital. He was a security guard. He used to be an oxygen cylinder officer. Bathing a corpse in a traffic accident is the most daring thing to bury an unidentified corpse that was taken to the hospital.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, his duties have become even more thrilling: to bathe, clothe corpses and bury bodies that are positive for COVID-19.
Almost every day a corpse is bathed using the COVID-19 health protocol. Both the bodies that were already positive for COVID-19 before they died and those that were waiting for the PCR swab results but the results of the rapid test showed reactive.
Each bathing the body is always equipped with a complete and layered Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
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The author, if he was returning to his hometown to West Sumatra, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, because a family had died, he often led the process of bathing and washing the body according to Islamic procedures.
In short, the activities started from lifting the body to the bathing place, removing the clothes, cleaning the body from clinging feces, eliminating uncleanness due to urinating or defecating, eliminating large hadas, to lifting the body on to the shroud and shrouding it.
All these activities are in direct contact, direct physical contact, with the corpse.
The author does not have an understanding based on empirical experience on how to remove dirt, unclean, hadas, and how to carry a positive COVID-19 corpse.
However, it can be ascertained that the following things were carried out by officers who bathed the body of COVID-19: the process of lifting the body to the bathing place; the process of removing all the clothes attached to the body; the process of removing dirt and unclean; the process of removing hadas; the process of lifting the body onto the shroud; process of shrouding; the process of lifting the body into the coffin.
All these processes can ensure direct physical contact between the officer and the body.
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According to the author’s opinion, managing the corpse is the biggest part of the physical contact between officers and people who are positive for COVID-19 compared to other hospital staff.
The meaning is that it is possible that the officer who bathed the body of COVID-19 was the officer with the greatest risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus compared to other officers.
So, every hospital that handles COVID-19 positive patients must inevitably always, not negotiate, to ensure the availability of good PPE for officers who bathe positive bodies of COVID-19.
Alhamdulillah, Pak Gondrong and his team are always equipped with PPE on duty. Hopefully other hospitals throughout the country will do the same.
However, the authors do not know what if the patient who died was in isolation at home independently. How to ensure the management of the body is in accordance with the protocol for handling a positive COVID-19 body.
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The author casually asked about the presence or absence of additional incentives for bathing the body of COVID-19. Mr. Gondrong only answered with a smile. Even though the writer tried to insist that he was willing to answer, the author only answered with a smile.
Of course the follow-up question is not so the authors ask: how much is the additional incentive for each bathing and burying a positive COVID-19 body?
The author really doesn’t understand what the smile means, whether there is no additional incentive or because it is taboo to talk about it. I don’t know, I hope it’s taboo to just talk about it.
In closing the dialogue via telephone, the authors asked the average number of bodies bathed in the COVID-19 protocol every day. To this question Pak Gondrong wants to answer it.
Why is the author asking this? Because the answer just needs to be multiplied by the number of hospitals that handle COVID-19 at the provincial and national levels, then, we will find an indication of how many bodies were buried using the COVID-19 protocol.
For journalists, this approximate figure can be used as starting material for conducting investigative journalism about the number of people who are buried with the COVID-19 protocol every day.
And many other things can be found out by a little analyzing these numbers.
The author certainly will not carry out investigative journalism to carry out the mandate of the Press Law, namely to fulfill the public’s right to know, because the author is not active in the world of journalism, let alone investigative journalism.
Oh yes, if anyone wants to know and asks the average number of bodies that Mr. Gondrong bathes with the COVID-19 protocol every day, apologize if the author disappoints dear readers: the author chose to make this information as data and information for the author only, according to the source’s request, Mr. Gondrong.
Hopefully COVID-19 will soon pass from our beloved country, aamiin.
*) Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Central Information Commission
