Jarring photos show bodies piled in closet, slumped in chair at Detroit hospital

THREAD: This is the true human cost of #COVID that you don't see on TV very often. CNN obtained photos from ER staff at a Detroit hospital, showing bodies pilled up in vacant spaces because the morgue was full. Nearly 1,500 people have died in Michigan, and 23,000 nationwide. A Detroit hospital is so overwhelmed with dead coronavirus patients that it is stashing the bodies on top of each other in a closet — and even sitting one upright in a chair in a hotel-like room usually reserved for sleep studies, jarring photos show.

“All I know is we ran out of beds to keep our patients on, so we couldn’t spare any for the bodies,” an emergency-room worker at Sinai-Grace Hospital – Detroit Medical Center told CNN, which obtained the snapshots, according to network reporter Marshall Cohen on Twitter on Monday.

One photograph showed white body bags stacked on the floor and what look like large, open, metal and wood-planked bookshelves in a long closet, along with several blue string sacks tossed on them.

“The blue bags shown in one of the photos are the personal effects of the deceased,” Cohen wrote.

Another photo showed two white body bags lying across a gold quilted comforter on a double bed, with another full body bag sitting in the chair next to it.

“At least one room, which is typically used for sleep studies, was used to store bodies because the morgue was full,” Cohen added.

A hospital spokesman told CNN, “Surge plans are in place at our hospital to handle the increase in patient volumes to ensure we provide the safest and most appropriate care for our patients.”