38 year old City council employee Adam Kuylen died at his home on Friday of unknown causes. Foul play is not suspected, but the truth is that the family may never know what caused his death - and they say it's because of improper storage by the KHMH. They say the hospital did not store his body properly in the morgue refrigeration unit, but instead just left him out in the morgue room to decompose.
So today, no post mortem could be conducted - and in fact, no proper burial could be held; because it is an advanced state of decomposition they had to bury him immediately.
It was a bitter ending for the already grieving family - and today we met them at the morgue as they made preparations for a hurry-up burial.
Vince Vasquez, Cousin of the deceased
"I guess you would normally expect they would put the body in a freezer or normal containment unit until Monday to continue regular business hours or whatever it is. I come to find out on Saturday morning that he was just left right there in the heat and his body started to decompose overnight. When we receive a phone call Saturday morning that Adam was left here - they push him in some freezer,
we later find out that this freezer was full of trash, parts that needed to be discomposed - so they just put him in basically a trash can and that is just very disrespectful and inhumane."
"Based on the person performing the autopsy - he says that the body has been left for several hours and his body is so decompose that it is inconclusive to find a proper reason of death."
Jules Vasquez
"So you cannot do a post-mortem?"
Vince Vasquez, Cousin of the deceased
"The family cannot do a post-mortem."
Jules Vasquez
"So you will never find out what kill your 38 year old cousin?"
Vince Vasquez, Cousin of the deceased
"Exactly, we came to find out that we cannot give him a proper burial ceremony at a church. We've been instructed to hurry up and bury him because of the advance state of decomposition. We are going through a lot of emotions - but this is a slap in the face and more of a beat down."
Jules Vasquez
"So you can't give him a proper burial. You will just have to hurry and basically throw him in a hole. How does that make the family feel?"
Vince Vasquez, Cousin of the deceased
"It's heartbreaking. My cousin was a hard worker. He deserves more than just a hole to throw him in there. If there was supposed to be assigned employees here that night - where were they? Some people have to be 24 hours. I would love to go to the human resource office and show me who they were and I would love for them to be fired because really no family has to go through this, none."
Vince Vasquez, Sr., Relative of the deceased.
"Do something because your family will have the same problem that my family has now."
Kuylen had worked at City Hall for 12 years in the Sanitation and Works Departments - and today his former co-workers secured two busses and went to the hospital to led the way for the expedited burial at homeland Memorial.
According to a statement from the KHMH this evening, on Friday night, Kuylen was transported to the KHMH morgue, which, quote "unfortunately was filled to capacity, so after a delay of some hours the body was transferred to the secondary storage unit on the hospital compound."
The release notably does not say how many those "some hours" were.
The release goes unto say, quote: "The body subsequently decomposed at an accelerated rate and this rendered an autopsy…impractical." It closes by saying,
"The KHMH apologizes…to the family…and assures the public that efforts to upgrade the facilities are continuing and that additional measures will be put in place to prevent a re-occurrence…"
