Family’s anger after relative’s body is lost . . . TWICE

Relatives of a Sutton woman who died on her way to King’s Mill Hospital have been left stunned after staff lost her body ... TWICE.

Jacqueline Matthews died last month while being rushed to Kings Mill by ambulance.

But when devastated relatives contacted the hospital the following day, staff admitted that they had mislaid her remains.

It was not until six days later that Mrs Matthew’s remains were located at King’s Mill.

And when her body was transferred to a hospital in Nottingham for a post-mortem to take place it was mislaid AGAIN.

Her sister, Diane Morphew of Berirstow Grange, Sutton, said: “It’s been a nightmare. We just wanted to arrange the funeral and get some closure, but it’s been a disastrous last few weeks.

“We now want to make sure that this never happens to anyone else because it’s so painful.

“I had to wait to tell my niece, Jacqueline’s daughter, as she was on holiday at the time.

Mrs Morphew told Chad that she rang King’s Mill the next day to see if a post-mortem was required, but was told by staff that the body of her late sister could not be located.

She said family contacted the hospital every day until eventually, six days later, King’s Mill advised them that they had found a body in their morgue which was later identified as the late Jacqueline Matthews.

Her body was then moved to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham on May 22, for a post-mortem to be carried out, where it was lost for a second time.

After daily phone calls, the family were eventually told by Nottinghamshire Coroners’ Office on 3rd June that no post-mortem had taken place as they could not locate the body.

On Friday, the family were contacted by coroners’ officers to advise that Jacqueline’s body had been found and that the post-mortem would now be carried out as a matter of urgency.

The case has been taken up by Ashfield MP Gloria De Piero.

She said: “The family want an explanation of what went wrong. We don’t want this to happen to anyone else, and I’m one hundred percent behind them.”

Elaine Torr, Divisional General Manager at Sherwood Forest Hospitals said: “We are sorry to learn of this incident and extend our sincere condolences to the family at this sad time.

“As soon as we became aware we launched an immediate investigation with colleagues at NUH and EMAS and will be responding to the family as soon as those investigations are complete.”

Mike Langford from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We are investigating the family’s concerns to answer their questions which relate to the trust’s involvement in this case.”