NM Family Sues Funeral Home Over Brain In Bag

Family Receives Mother's Brain In Bag Of Personal Effects

POSTED: 6:53 pm MST January 6, 2010
UPDATED: 11:58 am MST January 7, 2010

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A New Mexico family is suing after making a gruesome discovery -- a bag of personal effects given to them after their mother's death contained her brain.

Funeral homes in New Mexico and Utah, where the woman died in a Sept. 28 car crash, are blaming each other for the mistake.

According to the complaint filed Monday in state District Court in Albuquerque, the woman's relatives "smelled a foul odor coming from the bag" they received from DeVargas Funeral Home and Crematory of the Espanola Valley.

Funeral home owner Johnny DeVargas denied any fault, telling The Albuquerque Journal that the Utah funeral home was responsible.

The lawsuit names DeVargas, Serenicare Funeral Home in Draper, Utah, and Inman Shipping Worldwide, an Ohio shipping company that transported the body to New Mexico.

A woman, who answered the telephone after hours at Inman's, said nobody from the company was available to comment.

Serenicare owner Dick Johnson denied that his funeral home combined the brain and personal items in a single bag.

The chief medical examiner in Utah told a TV station in Salt Lake City that the standard procedure post-autopsy is to "return all organs and tissues to the body."

If a body part can't be put back, it's place in a bright red bio hazard bag and placed with the body.

Albuquerque attorney Richard Valle is handling the family's suit.

"No loved-one's brain should be part of those belongings," Valle told the Albuquerque Journal.

The lawsuit sites 17 areas of concern including professional negligence, mishandling of a body and outrage.  Funeral homes in New Mexico and Utah, where the woman died in a Sept. 28 car crash, are blaming each other for the mistake.

According to the complaint filed Monday in state District Court in Albuquerque, the woman's relatives "smelled a foul odor coming from the bag" they received from DeVargas Funeral Home and Crematory of the Espanola Valley.

Funeral home owner Johnny DeVargas denied any fault, telling The Albuquerque Journal that the Utah funeral home was responsible.

The lawsuit names DeVargas, Serenicare Funeral Home in Draper, Utah, and Inman Shipping Worldwide, an Ohio shipping company that transported the body to New Mexico.

A woman, who answered the telephone after hours at Inman's, said nobody from the company was available to comment.

Serenicare owner Dick Johnson denied that his funeral home combined the brain and personal items in a single bag.

The chief medical examiner in Utah told a TV station in Salt Lake City that the standard procedure post-autopsy is to "return all organs and tissues to the body."

If a body part can't be put back, it's place in a bright red bio hazard bag and placed with the body.

Albuquerque attorney Richard Valle is handling the family's suit.

"No loved-one's brain should be part of those belongings," Valle told the Albuquerque Journal.

The lawsuit sites 17 areas of concern including professional negligence, mishandling of a body and outrage.

 

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://www.koat.com/news/22166869/detail.html