Hospital mistakenly cremates a child patient.

A baby who died shortly after birth at 20 weeks was cremated at Royal North Shore Hospital in Australia due to a mix-up with a stillborn baby.

According to News, sThe incident was only discovered after the parents of the premature baby received their child's ashes. Previously, they had requested that the hospital bury the infant. Medical staff mistakenly identified the baby as a stillborn and proceeded with cremation according to the other family's wishes.

Illustration photo: BBC.

Royal North Shore director Kerry Chant explained that a blanket covering one of the two babies obscured the name tag, leading to a medical staff error. Following an investigation, the facility issued a formal apology on August 30th, stating that "a series of measures have been implemented to prevent similar mistakes from happening again in the future."

"I am deeply saddened and sorry that this incident has occurred," Health Secretary Jillian Skinner stated.

Similar incidents are not uncommon at Royal North Shore Hospital. On April 23, the body of an 89-year-old woman was mistakenly tagged with the wrong name tag. Fortunately, her daughter discovered this before the hospital cremated her.

According to VNE