Parents dismayed as CUMH report on burning of baby organs not completed
Speaking of the delay, one parent, Leona Bermingham, said: "We just want answers. We found out in May 2020 and we are in January 2022 now. We are trying to rebuild our lives and get back on track but we can’t.” Picture: Larry Cummins
A report on how the organs of 18 babies from Cork University Maternity Hospital were sent to Antwerp for incineration without their parents’ knowledge still does not have a date for completion.
The report is now delayed by more than two months, having been originally scheduled for completion in late October or early November.
A spokesman for the South/SouthWest Hospital Group has now told the : “The review is still engaging with some of the families. I don’t have a conclusion date.”
The review was commissioned by Cork University Hospital in May 2020 to establish the circumstances leading to the incineration of the organs. However, the review did not commence until April last year.
The review’s findings and recommendations will be shared with the families of the babies, some of whom live abroad.
Leona Bermingham, whose newborn son Lee was among the 18 babies whose organs were incinerated without their parents’ knowledge, met the review team in November with her partner Glenn Callanan.
Lee died on September 18, 2019, hours after Leona had given birth to him and twin brother Lewis by emergency C-section at 33 weeks gestation.
Leona told the Irish Examiner: “Our minds are always wondering what is happening now. At least if we knew when the report was coming out, there would be light at the end of the tunnel. We just want answers. We found out in May 2020 and we are in January 2022 now. We are trying to rebuild our lives and get back on track but we can’t.”
She said waiting for the release of the report is stressful, with their lives being put on hold.
She also said that as Lee’s twin Lewis reaches all his milestones, she and Glenn can’t help thinking about Lee.
The couple had expected to hear an update in early December following their November meeting and are frustrated that the wait is now extended into 2022.
A post mortem was held into Lee’s death. His parents only discovered that his brain had been sent to Antwerp for incineration when informed in a phone call in May 2020.
His and the other 17 babies’ organs were initially stored in the morgue at Cork University Hospital after being released by the pathology department following post mortem examinations. According to internal correspondence, mortuary staff at CUH became aware early in 2020 that its burial plot in Curraghkippane’s St Mary’s Cemetery was full and the organs could not be buried.
The organs were sent for incineration in late March and early April 2020, because space needed to be freed up at the morgue because of the possibility of increased deaths at the hospital following the arrival of Covid-19.
Last September, following the scandal being revealed on RTÉ’s , a spokesman for the South/SouthWest Hospital Group said that the incineration incident was confined to perinatal organs which were stored in the hospital mortuary between May 2019 and March 2020. The incineration occurred on two occasions – March 25 and April 2, 2020.
