More recordings from South Hospital are triggering growing public outrage. In the footage released by TV Republika, former mortuary coordinator Artur Habowski presents a grieving family with a price list for funeral services and embalming, referring to “our offer” and “our company.” Investigative journalist Piotr Nisztor has no doubt that the public hospital employee behaved “like a sales representative for a specific funeral home,” arguing that the case should have become the subject of decisive action by prosecutors long ago.
The scandal began with reports concerning Dawid Kacprzyk – the Emergency Department coordinator at South Hospital and a district councillor for Civic Coalition (KO) in Warsaw’s Ursus district. According to the reports, while completing his specialization in anesthesiology, he earned PLN 1.6 million from medical facilities last year. The hospital was also allegedly operating a so-called VIP lounge. More recently, TV Republika reported on a scandal involving the hospital mortuary, where coordinator Artur Habowski was allegedly promoting a specific funeral home. Earlier media reports also claimed that he had published graphic photographs of human remains.
TV Republika Releases More Recordings – Habowski Quotes Prices for Funeral Services
Shortly after noon today, TV Republika released additional recordings concerning Habowski’s activities. The recordings show him encouraging people to use the services of a specific funeral home while referring to it as “we.” In the newly published conversation, the mortuary coordinator presents a price list for funeral-related services to a woman arranging the funeral of a family member.
The conversation proceeded as follows:
Artur Habowski:
“First of all, the most important thing will be to secure a cremation date. And as I asked before, will there be a farewell ceremony or not?”
Woman:
“I don’t know. My mother… I don’t think she’ll be able to handle it. I need to talk to the rest of the family.”
Artur Habowski:
“All right. Let me explain how everything works. When it comes to preparing the deceased for cremation, we have two options. The first is dressing the deceased in clothing provided by the family. The second option is wrapping the body in a burial shroud. The body is washed, prepared, everything is done, but instead of clothing it is wrapped in a shroud. That’s one option. The cost with us is… all right, let’s do it. I won’t increase the price because of the weight. Normally we’ll make it PLN 500. Whether it’s clothing or a shroud, the fee is PLN 500. The second additional option is embalming. I’ll explain that as well.”
Woman:
“But that doesn’t make sense…”
Artur Habowski:
“You know, whether it makes sense or not, I always leave that to the family. When families come to say goodbye, they usually want the body to look good. During embalming, the body is disinfected. There is no so-called corpse poison, as people commonly call it. The livor mortis disappears – the purple ears, fingers and all post-mortem discoloration. The body is much better preserved. If there is swelling, embalming reduces it. Sometimes, I’ll be honest, the swelling disappears completely. Sometimes it is reduced by half. But it always goes down to some extent. Did the deceased have swelling? I can’t say because I haven’t seen the body.”
Woman:
“He was on a ventilator during the last week.”
Artur Habowski:
“OK. When we prepare the body, we also stitch up the tracheotomy opening, so there won’t be any visible hole.”
Woman:
“Actually, no, I misspoke. He didn’t have a tracheotomy. It was through the throat.”
Artur Habowski:
“So it was intubation. OK. In the end, it will be your decision whether to choose embalming as part of preparing the body. The standard price with us is PLN 1,000. Without embalming it’s PLN 500. That’s how our pricing works.”
Nisztor: He Behaved Like a Sales Representative
Investigative journalist Piotr Nisztor commented on the recordings.
“We now know who Artur Habowski is. He recently lost his position as the head and coordinator of the mortuary. As an employee of South Hospital, he behaved like a sales representative for a specific funeral home and for a company providing embalming services. He says, ‘we,’ ‘our offer,’ ‘our company.’ This is extraordinary. A man who so openly violated the law was employed at a hospital directly overseen by Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski. This is yet another example of the enormous pathology that existed at this hospital and of the unlawful business activities taking place there. Under Polish law, a person working in a mortuary cannot conduct any additional business related to a funeral home or their own private company.”
As Nisztor emphasized, “what we are seeing here is something that should be punished – and punished severely. In the earlier recording we released, there was discussion of the offer of a specific funeral home. Here we have a concrete offer from a company run by Mr. Habowski concerning embalming services, complete with specific prices presented to the relatives of someone who died in this hospital. From the moment those first recordings were published, prosecutors should already have launched an investigation.”
He added that “the problem is that, just as in the case of Dawid Kacprzyk, there appears to have been no action regarding Artur Habowski. There is no information suggesting either man has been questioned, that searches have been carried out, or that electronic equipment has been secured. There are more recordings, and as far as I know, they will soon be published not only by TV Republika but also by Portal Zero.”
Nisztor also stated that “more people are coming forward, outraged by what happened. They possess documents and evidence that should immediately become the subject of prosecutorial interest. Prosecutors are already examining not only matters involving Dawid Kacprzyk but also what took place inside this mortuary. It is shocking.”
He continued:
“Artur Habowski openly violated the law by encouraging relatives of deceased patients to use the services of a friendly embalming company and a preferred funeral home. This is something that should be punished severely. The only question is when prosecutors will finally take action against him and whether he will be questioned as a witness or as a suspect.”
The TV Republika journalist added that “looking at these recordings and his conduct, everything suggests he will most likely face criminal charges. The recordings show someone openly breaking the law in force in Poland. It is also ethically and morally outrageous. The people who came to him were grieving relatives who were still in shock after losing loved ones. In this particular case, there may also have been falsification of medical records.”
Finally, Nisztor argued that “the encouragement to take certain actions should also be examined, including whether the decision to cremate the deceased should be reviewed by the appropriate authorities. Regardless, the South Hospital case is extraordinary. It is an Augean stable – an institution where virtually every possible pathology appears to have been concentrated.”