Resurgence in memorial postmortem photography?

doi:10.1136/bmj.b1063

Published 17 March 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1063
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1063

Letters

Mobile phones in hospital

Resurgence in memorial postmortem photography?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

During a night shift I was called to confirm the expected deathof an elderly male patient on an open ward. The relatives wereexpecting a doctor to come, and they got up to temporarily leavethe bay when they saw me arrive. As they were leaving, I noticedone of them quickly take a picture of the dead man with hismobile phone.¹ The patient had a nasopharyngeal airway in situand had not yet been cleaned by the nursing staff. I thoughtit was slightly odd behaviour and mentioned it to a colleague,who said that she too had seen a relative taking a picture ofa recently dead relative using a mobile phone.

Photographs of the dead, particularly religious leaders, arestill taken and distributed in other parts of Europe but not,so far as I am aware, in the UK. Memorial postmortem photographywas once popular . . . [Full text of this article]

Patrick B M Burch, GPVTS SHO¹

¹ Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne NE7 7DN

Patrick.Burch@doctors.org.uk