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Hospital sued in wrong babys burial |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Friday, 17 June 2005 |
By STEVE LIEBERMAN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
June 16, 2005
The father of a boy who was born premature and died at Nyack Hospital is suing the hospital and SCI Funeral Services, alleging that an infant girl's body was instead released and buried in April 2002.
A similar case brought by the mother has been settled.
A planning conference is scheduled in August with state Supreme Court Justice William Sherwood in New City.
The lawsuit says Timothy Burton Simpson Jr. died at 3:41 a.m. April 14, 2002, about nine hours after Julie L. Burton gave birth. The boy was born after 22 weeks of gestation, about 16 weeks early. An autopsy determined the boy died of pulmonary hemorrhage and respiratory distress.
The lawsuit says that a few weeks after an April 18, 2002, burial in Oak Hill Cemetery, the family was told the wrong baby had been buried. A second service was held at the same plot for the boy. The girl remains buried there.
The baby's mother previously reached a settlement with the hospital and funeral home, details of which apparently were sealed. Her lawyer, Mark Winograd of White Plains, declined to comment.
The suit by Timothy Simpson Sr., the baby's father, accuses Nyack Hospital of releasing the wrong body. It accuses SCI Funeral Services, which owns Higgins Funeral Home in New City, of taking the wrong body and burying a girl knowing the body was supposed to be a boy.
Simpson is seeking an undisclosed amount of money claiming their negligence caused him extreme emotional distress.
Nyack Hospital's lawyer, Jack Corgan of White Plains, said yesterday that the hospital's diligence led to the baby's family being told.
"Unfortunately, the burial of the wrong baby was largely the result of actions of persons not connected to the hospital," Corgan said. "When the hospital discovered the error, the baby's family was immediately informed."
"And it is most unfortunate that the purported biological father is attempting to blame the hospital at this time," he said.
SCI manager Joseph Damonti said yesterday that he could not comment on the lawsuit. He said the funeral home earlier had settled a case with the baby's mother, but he could not provide details.
"Out of respect for the families and the parties involved, we'd rather not comment," Damonti said.
Simpson, who lives in Nyack, could not be reached for comment yesterday. His lawyer, Robert Fellows of New City declined to discuss the case.
Bill Groner, a lawyer for Worby Groner Edelman in White Plains, said Simpson can bring a lawsuit, even though the baby's mother settled a case earlier. He said a negligence suit usually depends on the level of physical injury, including death, to the victim. The one exception involves the right to a proper burial and the potential emotional anguish caused to the next of kin when that doesn't occur, he said.
Groner said such extreme emotional distress cases involving burials are not common. He said the cases generally involve hospitals that failed to turn over the corpse, lost the body after an autopsy or were involved in burial mistakes.
"The rationale is that the hospital or another entity did something so outrageous that it inflicted extreme emotional distress," Groner said.
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050616/NEWS03/506160351/1027/NEWS11&template=printart |
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