他在太平间里看到的一切仍然使他心有余悸

In the bowels of a Venezuelan hospital, I took my toughest walk ever.

在委内瑞拉的一家医院里，我进行了一次最艰难的行走。

It was just after dawn on Oct. 17. The corpse of my 81-year-old father lay on a gurney, covered in thick orange sheets. He had just died of a heart attack in his hospital room, on the fifth floor. He was lying in bed next to my stepmother, his companion for the last 20 years. It was four days after doctors had performed a major emergency surgery to repair his large intestine.

当时是10月17日黎明刚过。我81岁父亲的尸体躺在轮床上，上面盖着厚厚的橙色床单。他刚刚死于心脏病，在他五楼的病房里。他躺在我继母旁边的床上，他过去20年的伴侣。四天前，医生们为他做了一次修复大肠的紧急手术。

My father's care during his hospitalization was acceptable despite the deterioration in health care services during the current economic crisis. (The staff was quite good, but we had to bring our own water and medications, and there were flies constantly flying around the room.)

我父亲在住院期间的护理是可以接受的，尽管在当前的经济危机期间，医疗服务恶化了。(工作人员都很好，但我们必须自己带水和药品，而且房间里苍蝇不停地飞来飞去。)

After he died, it was another story. I saw firsthand how drastically the quality of my country's medical institutions has declined.

他死后，情况就不同了。我亲眼看到我国医疗机构的质量急剧下降。

In Venezuela, when someone dies in a hospital, the body is moved to the morgue until the family can sign papers to claim the body and take it for burial.

在委内瑞拉，当有人在医院去世时，尸体会被移到太平间，直到家属签署文件认领尸体并将其埋葬。

After my father's death, a male nurse in his early 20s pulled the gurney down a long outdoor corridor at University Hospital of Maracaibo. I followed along because I wanted to stay with my father's body until it reached the morgue, at which point I would go to an office to sign the necessary documents. I was heartbroken, tearing up uncontrollably.

我父亲去世后，一名20多岁的男护士在马拉开波大学医院的一条长长的室外走廊上推着轮床。我跟在后面，因为我想和我父亲的遗体在一起，直到它抵达太平间，然后我就会去办公室签署必要的文件。我心碎了，无法控制地流泪。

Memories of my father were passing through my mind like a high-speed train: I could see him throwing and catching a baseball with me when I was a kid and, years later, holding my 2-year-old baby girl in his arms.

父亲的记忆就像一列高速列车一样在我的脑海中闪过:我可以看到，当我还是个孩子的时候，他和我一起扔棒球，接住棒球;多年以后，他把我2岁的小女儿抱在怀里。

And then, as we got about 50 feet away from the main entrance of the morgue, a nauseating smell of putrefaction slapped me in the face. It was the kind of stench that shuffles your stomach.

然后，当我们离太平间正门大约50英尺的时候，一股令人作呕的腐烂气味扑面而来。那是一种让你胃里翻腾的恶臭。

The reek vacuumed up all those recollections in a snap.

臭气一下子把所有的回忆都吸走了。

The young nurse froze at the edge of the doorway. He leaned to the floor, and I thought perhaps he had a pain in his knee. Then I realized he was overcome with a wave of nausea.

Then I, the son of the departed, had to encourage a health worker to go on inside the morgue despite the foul smell.

年轻的护士在门口呆住了。他跪在地板上，我想他的膝盖可能有点痛。然后我意识到他感到一阵恶心。

We went down a narrow indoor hallway leading to the morgue, which consisted of five separate rooms. Every step drew me closer to the source of the stench, which I soon discovered was in one of these rooms. This particular room was filled with about a dozen rotting bodies on beds, some piled on top of each other.

我们沿着一条狭窄的室内走廊走到太平间，太平间由五个独立的房间组成。每走一步都让我更接近恶臭的来源，很快我就发现臭味就在其中一个房间里。这个特殊的房间里堆满了十几具躺在床上的腐烂身体，有些身体堆放在一起。

The nurse with the gurney proceeded to a different, smaller room where my father's body would stay until I'd signed the papers. Then the nurse left. I was standing in front of a small desk, but as yet there was no staff member there. The door to the large room with the rotting bodies was open. I went in and took a quick tour with a tissue covering my mouth and nose.

拿着轮床的护士走到另一间小一点的房间，在我签字之前，我父亲的遗体将停放在那里。然后护士离开了。我站在一张小桌子前，但那里还没有工作人员。那个尸体腐烂的大房间的门是开着的。我走进去，用一张纸巾捂住了嘴和鼻子，很快地游览了一番。

The scene was creepy, as if extracted from a horror movie. Two big overhead lamps shone upon two corpses. I could see their bones. The little flesh that remained had turned black and rotten.

这个场景令人毛骨悚然，就像从恐怖电影中走出来一样。两盏巨大的顶灯照在两具尸体上。我能看到他们的骨头。剩下的那一小块肉已经发黑腐烂了。

One week after my father died, I began making phone calls to learn more about the morgue situation.

父亲去世一周后，我开始打电话了解更多关于太平间的情况。

An NPR request to interview Mervin Urbina, director of the Universitario Hospital, to discuss the situation in the morgue was declined. No reason was given.

NPR要求采访大学医院院长默文·乌尔比纳讨论太平间的情况，但遭到拒绝。没有给出原因。