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Syndicate

Family Says Cremation Was Mistake, Sues Hospital PDF Print E-mail
Written by DeadGirl   
Sunday, 31 December 2006
Body Misidenitifed, Plaintiffs' Attorney Says
December 27, 2006

VALPARAISO, Ind. -- The family of a man whose body was mistakenly cremated is suing Porter hospital and the Porter County coroner's office. he lawsuit was filed Tuesday, three days after a different family said the same hospital sent the body of a Valparaiso man to the wrong funeral home.
On Jan. 2, 2005, the body of James F. Johnson, 59, was found in his home near Chesterton. The next day, he was misidentified, then cremated in the Porter hospital morgue before his relatives could make funeral arrangements, said one of the family's attorneys, Alexander Woloshansky. "These folks didn't have the benefit of closure," Woloshansky said. "They just didn't have it. And that's what hurts here."

Steven L. Langer, another family attorney, said relatives wanted a report from the hospital. "They wanted assurances the hospital had taken steps to correct the problem," he said. "None of that has happened."

The lawsuit filed in Porter Superior Court names Porter hospital, hospital CEO Ron Winger, Porter County Coroner Roger Kleist and his office, the Porter County Board of Commissioners and the Porter County Council as defendants.

It seeks unspecified damages and claims the defendants were negligent in the handling of a body and its cremation.

Porter spokeswoman Robin Carlascio said the hospital does not comment on pending litigation. The Associated Press left a message with Kleist's office, seeking comment. A recorded message said the coroner's office was closed Wednesday.

According to the suit, Winger instructed Kleist and the funeral home representative, John Evans, to tell the family there had been a mistake, but not to mention the body already had been cremated.

When Johnson's family members, including his wife and his mother, Hazel Johnson, met with Winger, Kleist and Evans, they were told a mistake had occurred and the hospital would investigate, the lawsuit said.

This week in an unrelated case, the family of a Valparaiso man who died Thursday at Porter hospital said that his body was delivered to the wrong funeral home.

The body of Eddie Chappell McDonald was supposed to be taken to Gatling's Chapel in Chicago, but was instead taken to the Garfield Waters Funeral Home several miles away.
Carlascio said the hospital has spoken with the family and was looking into the details.

The family figured out Saturday morning where the body had been taken by using the telephone number provided by the hospital, said McDonald's daughter, Edwina Shields of Valparaiso.

The body was embalmed while the family planned for a cremation, Shields said.

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/10617103/detail.html
 
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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries

Taphophilia Facts

According to the National Funeral Directors Association, about 27 percent of Americans opt for cremation.
 

Taphophiles Speak

Have you decided on eternal repose?
 

Quote Repository

Of present fame think little, and of future less; the praises that we receive after we are buried, like the flowers that are strewed over our grave, may be gratifying to the living, but they are nothing to the dead.

Charles Caleb Colton

Grave Epigrams

Here lie interred the dreadfully bruised and lacerated bodies of William Bradbury and Thomas, his son, both of Greenfield, who were together savagely murdered in an unusually horrid manner on Monday Night April 2, 1832:

Such and interest did their tragic end excite
That, ere they were removed from human sight,
Thousands on thousands daily came to see
The bloody scene of the catastrophe...

Saddleworth Church Graveyard
Yorkshire, England 1832

 

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