Colombian designers prepare cardboard hospital beds that double as coffins
As coronavirus cases soar in Latin America, doctors say unorthodox idea may be necessary
Joe Parkin Daniels in Bogotá
@joeparkdan
Wed 27 May 2020 06.30 EDT
ABC Displays, which usually manufactures cardboard advertising props, has developed a bed that converts into a coffin. Photograph: Courtesy ABC Displays
A cardboard hospital bed that doubles as a coffin may seem morbid, but as Latin America emerges as the latest coronavirus hotspot, doctors have suggested it may be an innovation whose time has come.
With Covid-19 cases surging across the region, a team of Colombian designers came up with the idea as a grimly pragmatic solution for anticipated shortages of hospital beds and funerary caskets.
We were shut down for a couple of months like everyone else, until we had this idea, said Rodolfo Gómez, the founder of ABC Displays, which normally creates cardboard advertising props. But when we saw what was happening in Ecuador, where bodies were piling up on the streets, we knew we had to prepare somehow.
Colombias southern neighbour was the setting for one of the regions first major outbreaks in April, when residents in the city of Guayaquil were forced to dump the bodies of their dead in the streets. In that instance, local authorities ended up distributing cardboard coffins to alleviate a shortage of funeral supplies.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/27/colombia-coronavirus-cardboard-hospital-beds-coffins