Hospital 'gave back baby's organs in lunchbox'

A Nottinghamshire couple claim hospital staff returned their dead son's vital organs in a lunchbox.

Melissa and Mark Shelton's son Taylor was two days old when he died at the Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre in Hucknall.

Three years later they discovered his organs had been removed.

They claim the missing body parts were handed back in a lunchbox with a picture of cheese and tomatoes on it.

Mr and Mrs Shelton told the News of the World: "What happened is a disgrace. It's bad enough losing a child, without this."

Queens Medical Centre has refused to comment.

Mrs Shelton, 28, said: "After we'd battled and fought, they handed us Taylor's parts back in plastic see-through boxes.

"They even had a picture of an Edam cheese and a tomato on the outside. It is appalling that this could happen."

Taylor died of a respiratory infection in February 1998. During a post-mortem examination his heart, brain, lung, kidneys and spleen were removed.

After publicity about the Alder Hey scandal the couple phoned a body parts helpline in January this year.

They were told about the missing organs five months later.

The couple plan to bury Taylor's organs above his body.

Putting them in the same coffin would require an exhumation application.