BOSTON (Legal Newsline) — Parents who wished to cremate the remains of their stillborn child are suing a Massachusetts hospital they say instead disposed of his remains.
Madeleine Bothe & Edward Felstead filed a complaint Oct. 18 in Suffolk County Superior Court against Mass General Brigham, Brigham & Women's Hospital and others, alleging breach of contract and other claims.
According to their complaint, the parents learned in April of 2020 that their second child, Baby Oliver, would be born with life-limiting disability. They claim that in October of 2020, they traveled to Boston to end the 22-week pregnancy and that when authorizing the procedure, they signed forms indicating they wanted to handle Baby Oliver's remains.
They further claim the defendants never disclosed the policy for the disposition of the remains, how long genetic testing and an autopsy would take or a firm date by when the baby's remains needed to be retrieved. The plaintiffs claim they were verbally told by the defendants that their baby's remains would be kept safely in the morgue for up to six months.
However, the defendant disposed of his remains by December of 2020.
Bothe says she was told that BWH used to call parents of deceased children to verify the intended disposition of remains but found it "caused more harm than good."
"Rather than make a phone call to ensure that the plaintiffs' wishes were honored, and Baby Oliver's remains respected, Brigham chose to discard Baby Oliver without telling anyone," the suit says.
"After enduring the grief caused by BWH's inexcusable mishandling of their child's remains coupled with BWH's callous and outrageous response to the situation, Madeleine and Ed have decided that they do not wish to get pregnant ever again."
The parents seek monetary relief, interest, trial by jury and all other just relief. They are represented by Gregory Henning of Henning Strategies in Boston and Patrick Driscoll and Christopher Upperman of Boyle, Shaughnessy Law PC in Boston.