‘To go through three funerals is just an insult’
THE parents of a soldier whose remains were “left in the back of a fridge” and who had to bury him three times say their lives are “finished”.
Lee Foley, 26, died on New Year’s Eve in 2011 while walking through Merthyr Tydfil town when he was hit by a taxi and hit his head on the road.
The Lance Corporal Royal Engineer, who served in Afghanistan, died from his injuries later that night.
As part of the post-mortem examination procedure, samples of Lee’s body tissue – brain, spinal cord, skin and spleen – were taken to be examined and were returned to the family, then cremated on March 9 and interred on March 12, 2012.
But 18 months later, Lee’s parents Paul, 56, and Sian, 57, were told by funeral directors they had been contacted by the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, to say that more of Lee’s body samples were due to be released.
On hearing the news, Paul said: “On June 12, 2013, the undertaker phoned me and asked what did I want doing with Lee’s remains.
“I said we had already buried him and they told me that they had found more remains of Lee in the back of a fridge at Cardiff hospital. That’s how I found out. We recovered them in July 2013 and had him cremated. I have had to have three funerals for him.
“The undertaker and the vicar have never heard anything like it.”
Paul and Sian looked into taking legal action against Cardiff and Vale University Health Board but have recently been told by their solicitors that the health board has no case to answer.
Lee’s father said: “How can a hospital lose parts of a body and have nothing to answer for?
“Surely someone has got to give me an explanation why it took 18 months to return these body parts.
“I think this is the end of the road and I think they have got away with it.”
Lee, from Penydarren, was first part of 39 Squadron of the Royal Engineers but then transferred to 22 Squadron, the squadron with which he went to Afghanistan.
Speaking about the loss of his son, Paul said it was something he and his wife would never get over.
He added: “You can imagine, you just don’t want to wake up in the morning; the two of us, our lives have finished. You fight for your country and come home and that’s the way you get treated. There’s no words to describe how you’re feeling.
“I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to go through what I’ve gone through. It has just rubbed salt into the wounds. At the end of the day they’re talking about my son and money won’t replace him but to go through three funerals is an insult.”
A spokeswoman from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said that as Lee had not been a patient of the health board, they were not responsible for the matter.
A name plaque dedicated to L/Cpl Foley was unveiled at a ceremony at Pant War Memorial attended by his parents, the Mayor of Merthyr Tydfil, and soldiers from L/Cpl Foley’s regiment, the Royal Engineers, last December.