Organ scandal families in the dark

The Queen's Medical Centre retained 2,700 organs

Hundreds of families are still waiting to hear whether their dead relatives' organs were retained by a Nottingham hospital.

Nearly 1,000 people contacted a helpline set up by the Queen's Medical Centre (QMC) when the organs scandal emerged six months ago.

Most have still not been told whether tissue samples and organs from their dead relatives have been kept by the hospital.

The QMC had kept 2,700 adult and baby organs for research purposes.

It's brought the whole grieving process back

Julie Whittaker

Last year 40 families were told that the hospital had kept organs of relatives without their knowledge.

One mother whose daughter's organs were retained without consent has set up a support group for parents affected.

Julie Whittaker said it was unacceptable that many families were still in the dark about whether the hospital had retained tissues from their loved ones.

"It's brought the whole grieving process back. Every day has had to be re-lived again," she said.

"But then to wait, they've defiled and made a mockery of the funeral we've already had."

Delicate process

The Queens Medical Centre said the task of informing nearly 1,000 families who phoned a helpline was continuing.

A spokesman said the complex job of tracing organs and presenting relatives with the information was expected to take many more months to complete.

A report about Alder Hey Children's Hospital on Merseyside found that thousands of dead children had been stripped of organs.

Multiple funerals

This often happened without the knowledge or consent of their parents.

In some cases, as organs were retrieved one by one, families held funeral after funeral to rebury them.

Thousands of people, prompted by the publicity surrounding the Alder Hey inquiry, called hospitals asking whether organs had been retained.