Family’s fury as hospital lose dead relative’s body

A mourning family were stunned when hospital staff admitted they didn’t know where the body of their dead relative was.

Billie McLaughlin hoped to see her stepfather, Terry Brady, 74, at peace after he passed away at Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock.

But distraught Billie was horrified when a nurse on the ward took her to a bay, and drew back the curtains to reveal an empty bed then confessed to not knowing where the body had been taken.

“It was disturbing,” Billie, 59, said. “The nurse led us to his bed on the ward and opened the curtains, but the bed was empty.

“Then he started shouting down the corridor to the other nurses, asking where he’d been moved to.

“As if it wasn’t hard enough being told he was dead without that. This was a senior nurse and he had no idea where one of his patients was.

“We found it all completely unprofessional, insensitive and distressing.”

Earlier this month, NHS bosses wrote to Billie and husband Frank apologising for the blunder claiming it was “unacceptable” and fell short of their standards.

But the fuming family are set for a face-to-face meeting with hospital chiefs to address a host of other complaints they have about his care during his three-week stay at the Larkfield Unit, based at the NHS’s Inverclyde Royal Hospital, in September.

The couple, from Greenock, allege Terry didn’t receive proper medication, was left unwashed and had problems with his feeding tube.

They eventually saw the body after other staff tracked it down to a private room in the same ward.

“He was left to die without dignity,” Frank, 60, said. “I’ve seen dogs being treated better.

“We went to the hospital every day and were shocked by the number of mistakes being made. One day Terry hadn’t been given his medication, the next he hadn’t been washed.

“He wore a PEG feeding tube which became dislodged and there were a series of errors in booking him in for surgery to have that resolved.

“And then to top it all off, we went to see him after he died and the nurses didn’t know where he was.

“We put our trust in the Health Service to look after Terry, but it failed him.”

Billie added: “The NHS doesn’t seem to be accepting much responsibility. We received a letter responding to the complaint, but there was very little by way of apology and it was full of mistakes.

“At one point, it refers to my stepdad being reviewed by a doctor on October 9 but he was dead and buried by then.

“He died on September 9. The fact that they can get details like that wrong just made us even more upset.”

Margaret Watt, Chair of Scotland Patients Association, said: “This is shocking and totally unacceptable.

“We hear so many cases of patients being shifted around hospitals and the staff not having a clue where they are, and it shouldn’t be happening especially with someone who is deceased.

“This must have been very upsetting and stressful for the family. Mistakes like these shouldn’t be happening.”

A spokesperson for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “Our Interim Director of Rehabilitation and Assessment wrote to the family addressing their concerns including the misunderstanding on where their father’s body was after he had died.

“We accept this was unacceptable and have apologised unreservedly to the family.

“Senior staff will be meeting with them to discuss their concerns.”