Wednesday August 1, 2007
Hospital Keeps Fetus in Pathology Lab, Lies to Mother and Says It was Cremated
By Elizabeth O'Brien
SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom, August 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A National Health Service hospital lied to the mother of a miscarried baby, saying that they had cremated her child's body, when it was actually being stored in their pathology lab.
33-year old Lisa Bertelsen from Millbrook, Southampton wanted to have a memorial ceremony for her baby that she naturally miscarried in December of last year. The hospital contacted her to say that they still had the child's remains after preserving the body for sixth months.
In an interview with UK's Daily Echo, Bertelsen stated, "We were going to have a blessing service without the body, and four days before that was due to go ahead, the hospital contacted me. They told me the baby was still in the path lab-I just couldn't believe it."
She continued, "I cried so much. I found it difficult to come to terms with losing my baby in the first place but then when I discovered the baby was still at the hospital, I just couldn't believe it."
Bertelsen explained that from the beginning of her miscarriage, the hospital treated her inconsiderately and carelessly. After she arrived at the hospital, one nurse asked her why she was crying, saying she was lucky not to be four months pregnant. At midnight the mother said she would like a chaplain to visit her, but was told she couldn't have one.
"Just as I was being taken into the operating theatre, they asked me to sign consent forms so they could dispose of the body but I said no. And after I came out, I asked if there was another way of disposing of my baby's remains other than cremation and they said there was only one option."
"I asked if I could take the baby home and they told me it had been cremated. I was heartbroken because I had been given no options," she said. Bertelsen notes that if she had not decided to have a memorial service, the lab might have held onto her child's corpse indefinitely.
Mark Hackett, chief executive of the Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Princess Anne, wrote to Ms Bertelsen to "apologise unreservedly" for the "pain and distress" caused by the "error". He also stated that the hospital should have given Bertelsen access to the 24-hour chaplain call line. In addition, he admitted that they failed to give her the option of taking her baby's body home to bury.
Usually the tests following a miscarriage, the transfer to the crematorium and the cremation itself take a maximum of six weeks. Hackett claimed, however, that the gross breach of normal procedure in this case was the result of an administrative delay, a "breakdown in the normal procedures." He also stated that the hospital is taking steps to prevent this from happening again.
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