Mortuary in child body mix-up
In the second mix up in less than a half year, funeral directors Fonus have cremated the wrong person. When the family and parents of a 4-year-old child opened the coffin during the funeral they were shocked to see the dead body of a baby.
“This is a catastrophe,” said Magnus Söderberg, head of the Karolinska University hospital morgue where the switch happened, according to Aftonbladet. “Our personnel were there to show which compartment the child lay in and then did an identification. Later, the mortuary took the wrong child.”
Last time a 79-year-old woman was wrongly cremated. This time around the mortuary didn’t realize a mistake had been made until the after the baby had been cremated.
“The consequences were devastating,” Söderberg said.
He said a review of routines at other morgues in the Stockholm area will take place. He said practices were looked over after the first case, and now newer, safer routines will be put in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Fonus admits the mix up is its fault.
“Yeah, we have a part in this. We are not trying to escape that in anyway,” said the company’s information chief, Bo Forslund.
Forslund said more than month has passed since the mix up and he is not sure why workers took the wrong body.
“Right now we are not saying anything more out of respect to the families involved,” he said. “Sadly, it happens a few times each year.”
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“This is a catastrophe,” said Magnus Söderberg, head of the Karolinska University hospital morgue where the switch happened, according to Aftonbladet. “Our personnel were there to show which compartment the child lay in and then did an identification. Later, the mortuary took the wrong child.”
Last time a 79-year-old woman was wrongly cremated. This time around the mortuary didn’t realize a mistake had been made until the after the baby had been cremated.
“The consequences were devastating,” Söderberg said.
He said a review of routines at other morgues in the Stockholm area will take place. He said practices were looked over after the first case, and now newer, safer routines will be put in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Fonus admits the mix up is its fault.
“Yeah, we have a part in this. We are not trying to escape that in anyway,” said the company’s information chief, Bo Forslund.
Forslund said more than month has passed since the mix up and he is not sure why workers took the wrong body.
“Right now we are not saying anything more out of respect to the families involved,” he said. “Sadly, it happens a few times each year.”
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