A GRIEVING mum today told of her anguish amid claims that hospital chiefs "forgot" about her newborn son, forcing his funeral to be delayed.

Officials at the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary denied the allegation but confirmed that a probe had been launched into the case. Sarah Armstrong, 20, and partner Thomas Airlie lodged a formal complaint after learning their premature baby’s body had been left lying in a mortuary for several days.

The couple claim a doctor later told them staff had "forgotten" about their son TJ, whom they had planned to bury by last Thursday. A funeral service was eventually held on Saturday.

They have also raised concerns about the quality of the stitches used to seal the baby’s body following a postmortem.

But health chiefs insist TJ was "at no time forgotten" and maintained he was in an "acceptable condition" when presented to undertakers. The family today described their "sheer hell" since Ms Armstrong gave birth to TJ after only 24 weeks - or about three months premature. Ms Armstrong, from Granton Medway, said: "He wasn’t breathing when he came out.

"But he was a fighter and was fine for the first 11 days. We thought he was going to make it. But on the 12th day, he changed overnight."

The family say they immediately asked for the deceased baby’s body to be released so they could "bring him home for a night" but were informed that a postmortem would be required beforehand.

Ms Armstrong claimed: "He was meant to get a postmortem done on Saturday and as far as we knew everything was fine. We wanted the funeral to be for Wednesday or Thursday. But when the undertaker phoned on Wednesday to find out when he’d be released, they told us the postmortem hadn’t been done and he wasn’t ready to be picked up.

"When a consultant called me back, he said: ‘I’m going to be absolutely honest with you but we forgot that TJ was here’.

"I was coping until I found that out. It’s just been sheer hell ever since."

ERI officials deny the claim and say the body was made available to undertakers by Wednesday afternoon.

The family filed a complaint on Friday, which also raises concerns about stitches to TJ’s body following a postmortem.

As a result, a representative of the pathology department was sent to examine the baby at a Leith funeral home on Friday.

A funeral service for TJ - who died on June 25 aged only 12 days - was finally held at Seafield Cemetery at the weekend. An outraged Mr Airlie today questioned how such a situation could possibly occur. The 29-year-old said: "How can you forget a dead kid is sitting there? I want to know why my baby lay in a mortuary for so many days."

A spokeswoman for the ERI today said: "Our sympathies lie with this family and we are looking into all their concerns and supporting them at this sad time. We are satisfied that the baby was in an acceptable condition when he left the hospital and this has been confirmed by the undertakers. At no time was the baby forgotten about.

"Over the weekend, the baby remained at the unit at Simpson’s to provide easy access for the parents and on the Monday was transferred to the mortuary, where following the post-mortem he was transferred to the undertakers in line with normal practices."

A spokesman for McKenzie and Millar Funeral Directors in Great Junction Street declined to discuss the situation, citing "client confidentiality".

http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=774752004