Parents who fear their baby's organs were incinerated have claimed families will be “devastated” by the conclusion of a new investigation.
The report has ruled that it was “misguided” for Cork University Hospital to send 18 babies’ organs for incineration in 2020 without parents’ knowledge.
Apologies were made by the hospital and an investigation was ordered by its executive management board in 2021.
The probe’s conclusion that the decision was “misguided” was shared with the affected families.
Dublin parents Amanda and Brian McGarry, who fear their baby Emma’s brain and heart was incinerated in the 1990s, said the Cork parents will be “devastated”.
Brian told the Irish Mirror: “Misguided is a terrible word to use. It is not the word that I would use.
“We had the controversy about organ incineration in the 1990s and we were told that it would never happen again.
“You would think that sufficient guidance would exist at this time to be followed. To say a decision was misguided is not an excuse.
“In another walk of life, you would be in trouble for a major mistake – you wouldn’t just be told that your decision was misguided.
“There doesn’t ever seem to be accountability.
“If Joe Bloggs sent these organs away from Cork to be incinerated, there is a chain of command, and the decision-makers are there.
“It’s very disappointing. The families in Cork will be devastated to know that parts of their baby were incinerated in Belgium or Denmark.”
It was initially claimed that the Cork babies’ organs went to Belgium, but the report published yesterday revealed that Denmark was the destination.
The report also found that the decision to send the babies' organs for incineration was made by the hospital's post-mortem room team.
It was stated that the team consulted guidelines relevant to waste management - but that these were not specific to the sensitive disposal of organs.
The post-mortem room team was stated to have expressed regret.
The report states that a hospital plot for the burial of organs at St Mary's Cemetery, Curraghkippane, in Cork, became full in December 2019.
As a result, babies’ organs lay in storage in a hospital morgue after they were released following post-mortem examinations.
The report says that by March 2020, amid the escalation of the Covid-19 pandemic, hospitals required increased mortuary capacity, and a decision was taken to dispose of the organs through incineration.
The report does not name a decision-maker but does state that the Cork case was an isolated incident.
A new team of medical scientists at Cork University Hospital since April 2021 is now responsible for organs in accordance with national standards, according to the report.
Brian said: “The feeling of loss will never leave, it doesn’t go away. This case in Cork drags back up memories and pain for us.
“It’s hard to believe independent inquiry conclusions when they use words like misguided.”
Emma McGarry died in Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin in 1995, aged just seven weeks, due to heart disease complications.
Tragic Emma’s heartbroken mum Amanda and dad Brian later learned that her organs were removed without permission and sent away.
Amanda said: “We were told that Emma's brain had been removed and that it had probably gone somewhere around the world to be incinerated.”
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