Politics
Wednesday August 1, 2007
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
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.
Read related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Price Lists for Aborted Baby Parts
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/aug/990819a.html
Many Universities Use Aborted Baby Parts for Research http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/dec/99121604.html
Abortion Encouraged in Ukraine as Unborn Babies Used for Russian Beauty Treatments
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/may/05052411.html
List of Canadian Vaccines Made from Aborted Babies Body Parts
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/apr/06041004.html
FBI SAYS MARKETING OF ABORTED BABY PARTS IS NOT ILLEGAL
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/sep/01090503.html
New Zealand Experiments Use Fetal Eyes from US Abortion Carnage
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/oct/05101801.html
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- Canada's Governor General Agrees to Suspend Parliament
- Study Shows Fertility Patients Want Frozen Embryonic Children Buried
- Planned Parenthood Suspends Employee Caught Covering Up Rape of 13-Year-Old
- Grand Duke of Luxembourg Loses Power After Threatening Veto of Euthanasia Law
- Vatican Archbishop Defends Rights of Parents to Educational Choice
- Movie Reviewer for Catholic Bishops' Conference Praises Homosexualist Film - Again
- Vatican Attacked for Defending Natural Family
- Shock: Evangelical Leader Believes in Gay Civil Unions, Says OK to Vote for Obama
- U.K. Catholic Diocese will Continue to Collect Funds for Secularised Adoption Agency
- Too Much Television, Internet Linked to Long-Term Health Problems for Children
- Pro-Abortion Cherie Blair to Speak at Prominent Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome
- Purchase of Christmas Music CD By Pro-Life Priest is Great Way to Support LifeSiteNews
Most Read this Week
- Behind the Scenes of Volition: Coincidences and Startling Circumstances
- Ad Showing Woman Seducing Santa Promotes Free Morning-After Pills and Condoms for Christmas
- Movie Reviewer for Catholic Bishops' Conference Praises Homosexualist Film - Again
- A Painful, Disease-Ridden Death Isn’t So Bad if You’re Just a White, Heterosexual Male
- Abortion Now Number One Cause of Death in Spain
- Catholic Bishop: "Go Right Ahead and Arrest Me" Rather than Obey Freedom of Choice Act
- UK Catholic Adoption Agencies Voluntarily Refuse Religious Opt-Out Clause for Homosexual Adoption
- God is Pro-Choice Says Nun
- University of Calgary Pro-Life Students Victorious - Administration Backs Down from Arrest Threats
- IKEA’s Polish Catalogue Introduces “Ian and Steve” as a Model of the New Family
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.