Couple told to collect dead son’s brain in lab mix-up

A shocking mix-up has resulted in a Limerick couple being wrongly advised they could collect their dead son’s brain from the State laboratory.

Patrick O’Donnell and wife Teresa, who live in St Mary’s Park, last night told of their devastation over the confusion.

Their son Joseph O’Donnell, aged 30, was found dead in a city centre apartment on Dec 7, 2010, but the organ, it emerged, belonged to a namesake who died in a violent incident in Limerick two months earlier.