A funeral home director was forced to keep the body of a 440-pound man in her car overnight with the air conditioner on after the body was rejected from the hospital morgue on grounds that it was too fat to store (no pun intended).

The hospital had also rejected two bodies of similar mass in the past because they do not have equipment durable enough for the bodies.

As per Sydney Morning Herald:

“It’s a load of crap … I could probably put a baby elephant in one of those fridges and it’d fit through the door, and they’re refusing entry for a human being,” Ms Cummings told the North West Telegraph. “My issue is if that was your father, mother, partner … you wouldn’t want them refused entry into the mortuary.” She said the same campus had refused to take the body of another 250-kilogram man last year. “[A staff member] walked out and looked at this gentleman in the back of the car and said: ‘He’s too fat, he can’t go in the fridge’. You can’t say things like that,” Ms Cummings told the newspaper. “Imagine if this was your mother.”

The funeral home director, Joanne Cummings, said that she went through three tanks of gas and checked on the body every 30 minutes to make sure it didn’t start decomposing in her vehicle. She was forced to rent out a shipping container with a freezer in it to store the body.

The hospital released a statement saying that their equipment can handle only up to 330 pounds. They are currently working to upgrade their units to handle up to 660 pounds.

h/t The Sydney Morning Herald