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Funeral home accused of cremating wrong body PDF Print E-mail
Written by DeadGirl   
Saturday, 22 May 2004
A father is suing a funeral home for $1 million for partially cremating his son's body by mistake. And now, the Va. Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers will investigate, WVEC.com has learned.

The lawsuit filed by Cary M. Paulk in Norfolk Circuit Court accuses Graham Funeral Home of mistakenly taking 25-year-old Johnny Paulk's body for cremation instead of the body of 50-year-old William Dale Parks, who was being stored at the medical examiner's office at the same time.

The lawsuit said both bodies were marked for identification. Paulk's body was partially cremated before the mistake was discovered, the lawsuit states.

Paulk's attorney told 13News on Wednesday that Graham's never checked the body's identification or the paperwork.

Graham's attorney said the medical examiner's office mixed up the bodies.

"The medical examiner's office produced the body Graham was supposed to pick up. They made various written and oral representations that this was, in fact, the body that Graham was supposed to pick up," said Craig Gallagher.

The Paulk family gathered pictures of Johnny to display at the visitation, said William Bischoff, the family's lawyer. But relatives who had expected to see Johnny's body to say goodbye asked questions, he said.

"It's just a nightmare of gargantuan dimensions," Bischoff said.

WVEC.com on Wednesday contacted the Va. Department of Health Professionals' Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers. Spokesperson Elizabeth Young said the board had not heard of the case, but she said that it would be investigated.

Young said there are laws and codes that a funeral home must follow. According to Young, a family member still must identify a body before actual cremation, even if the body's been identified previously elsewhere.

She told WVEC.com that the enforcement section will review the case and made a recommendation for action, which could include closing the case for no violations found or issuing sanctions. That process would take at least 90 days.

Young confirmed to WVEC.com that Graham Funeral Home has not had any past complaints nor were there any open complaints.


http://www.wvec.com/news/topstories/stories/wvec_local_051804_cremation_error.1d3ca420b.html
 
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