Hospital Mix-Up Resulted In This Grieving Family Holding Funeral For Wrong Body

The family got to know about the error when the funeral was already done. According to the reports, the mix-up occurred at the Cumberland Infirmary, and an investigation into the incident is now underway.

#1 The family of the deceased didn't realize at the time of the funeral that the body inside the coffin is of a complete stranger

When the family reached the burial service on July 6 at St. Mary’s Church in the village of Rockcliffe, they didn't know that there had been a mistake. The body inside the coffin was of a stranger that too one year younger than their deceased loved one.

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The family got to know about this when George Hudson & Sons Funeral Directors were contacted by the mortuary staff at Cumberland Infirmary.

The funeral directors were asked when they were going to collect the body of the man due to be buried in Rockcliffe.

It looked like a mix-up occurred and now the investigation is being done, as reported by the News & Star.

A spokesperson from George Hudson & Sons made the following statement:

Our sympathy goes out to the families involved. Our family has been funeral directors for more than 150 years and nothing like this has happened before.

Clearly, something has gone terribly wrong. We handed in paperwork for the man whose body we believed we were collecting.

There are protocols to ensure we have who we think we have. We didn’t realize we had another person’s body. We feel for the families.

#2 The remains of the man who was buried in the wrong grave were later exhumed on July 15

The body of the man that was buried in the wrong grave was supposed to be cremated on July 13 if this mix-up wouldn't have occurred.

His body was later exhumed on July 15 and has reportedly since been cremated at the Carlisle Crematorium on Monday, July 20.

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#3 Internal investigation is underway and the findings will be shared with the families once the investigation is complete

The body of the other man that was supposed to be buried at the Rockcliffe cemetery, was exhumed and buried on the same day.

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A North Cumbria Integrated Care Foundation NHS Trust spokesperson said:

We are supporting the funeral directors to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident and our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the families at what is already a difficult time.

We are undertaking an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident and will share the findings with the families once this is complete.

#4

In 2017, a study was published in the 'Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine', according to which between the years 2002 to 2013 a total of nine incidents took place where the wrong body had been released, leading to an exhumation after a burial or cremation had already taken place.

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