Hospital cremates wrong child patient

A baby who died after being born at 20 weeks was cremated by Royal North Shore Hospital (Australia) because it was mistaken for a stillborn baby.

According to News, sThe incident was only discovered after the premature baby's parents received their child's ashes. They had previously asked the hospital to bury the patient. Medical staff mistook the baby for a stillborn baby and cremated it according to the other family's wishes.

Illustration: BBC.

Royal North Shore director Kerry Chant explained that the blanket covering one of the babies had obscured the name tag, leading to the error. After an investigation, the facility issued an official apology on August 30, and said that "a series of measures have been put in place to prevent similar mistakes from happening again in the future."

"I am deeply saddened and sorry that this incident occurred," Health Minister Jillian Skinner said.

Similar incidents are not uncommon at Royal North Shore Hospital. On April 23, the body of an 89-year-old woman was tagged incorrectly. Luckily, her daughter discovered it before the hospital took her away for cremation.

According to VNE