Dead body released by hospital with no brain

A DEAD body was released to the funeral director without the person’s brain following a postmortem, it has been revealed.

The organ was eventually put back when the error was discovered.

Lost organs and damage to body parts are among incidents reported by mortuary staff at Leicestershire Hospitals.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that between 2014 and 2016, 11 serious incidents occurred at mortuaries - the majority of which are believed to have taken place at Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI).

Five of the incidents resulted in the deceased’s body being damaged, in one case because an incorrect hoist was used.

In another case a specimen was lost following a post-mortem examination, while a mislaid toxicology sample could have led to an unascertained cause of death. However, the sample was eventually located.

Another incident led to the “inappropriate disposal of pregnancy remains.”

Leicestershire Hospitals had the highest number of serious incidents recorded in mortuaries than any other in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, according to the FOI. Although bodies are stored at Leicester General and Glenfield Hospital, these mortuaries are far smaller than those at the LRI. All of the incidents were made known to the deceased’s family members at the time.

Dr Angus McGregor, clinical director of pathology services at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, said he wanted to reassure the public that the service it operated was “safe” and that mortuary staff were “compassionate” and a “committed team”.

He said: “This is the largest number of incidents of any establishment and clearly I’m not happy with that. Ideally, we would wish to have no such incidents.

“However, Leicester Royal Infirmary is a big and busy public mortuary with an equally busy post-mortem service.

“Others operate much smaller mortuaries which may not be public and do not conduct postmortems.”

Dr McGregor said that the LRI dealt with more than 5,500 bodies every year and between 1,800 and 2,000 post-mortem exami- nations over the same period.

“We are also a teaching hospital so there’s a complex mix which adds to how busy we are,” he added.

“In addition, we have a good culture of reporting incidents in Leicester and this open culture enables us to learn from any mistakes. I don’t wish to trivialise in any way what has happened. We have had a number of failings, the majority of which come down to human error and we take responsibility for that.

“We have thoroughly investigated each incident, tightened up procedures and I’m confident we have eliminated many of the risks.”

There were 278 serious incidents in total in the three-year period in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Accidental damage to bodies was reported 89 times over that period. The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) has said that when incidents occur, thorough investigations are undertaken.

A serious incident is defined as “human errors or system failures that lead to damage to bodies or misplaced bodies or body parts”.