Funeral held for stillborn misplaced by hospital

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This article was published 02/11/2017 (2919 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The mother of a stillborn boy hospital officials lost then found said the funeral was going ahead as planned.

A director from the funeral home picked up the remains and family gathered for the service at 1 p.m. as initially scheduled.

The day before the funeral, the parents were frantic after the funeral home said the hospital hadn’t delivered the remains of baby Tristan Cassius Mitchell for the cremation.

Just before 1 p.m., mother-to-be Danielle Morrissette said she was on her way to the funeral and was feeling more optimistic today.

“They did contact me,” Morrissette said, relaying a call she had that morning from officials with Women’s Hospital.

“I have an appointment Nov. 7 and I’m feeling, like, more happy because they were in the wrong and we never should have been treated that way.”

Winnipeg Regional Health Authority officials pledged Wednesday they would reach out to the family to discuss their concerns and find out what happened. The same pledge came from the pathology contractor as well.

Morrissette and her partner Chris Mitchell recounted a series of rude events and insensitive encounters during the stillbirth procedure and afterwards when the remains went missing.

The remains were located Wednesday after the couple took to their phones to find out what was going on at the hospital.

Once they were found, a senior official from the funeral home drove to pick up the remains personally. Typically the policy has the pathology contractor, who works for the WRHA, send the remains over.

“I even sent a picture of baby Tristan with him so he could check to see it was my son and yes, it was my son,” Morrissette said of the funeral home executive who made the trip.

 

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca