Mother weeps in organs hearing

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The mother of a three-day-old baby wept in court as she told how her daughter's organs were removed after she died.

Karen Harris, of the Dorchester area of Dorset, broke down on the second day of a hearing brought by 2,140 individual claimants, who say doctors removed and kept their relatives' organs without their knowledge.

She told the court how five-and-a-half years after her daughter Rossina's death in October 1995, she received a letter explaining organs, including her heart and brain, had been kept at the post-mortem examination and later disposed of.

Mrs Harris said: "I feel I have let her down because I couldn't protect her. I tried, but I did not protect her."

I just couldn't deal with the thought of her organs being in a jar on a shelf somewhere Karen Harris

The case is one of three lead cases at the High Court before Mr Justice Gage.

The two others involve the removal and retention of organs from Daniel Carpenter, whose parents Alan and Susan live in Norfolk, and Laura Shorter, whose mother Denise lives in the Oxford area.

Mrs Harris told the hearing that despite giving permission for a post-mortem examination to take place, she stipulated her daughter had to "come back to me whole".

She said: "I just couldn't deal with the thought of her organs being in a jar on a shelf somewhere."

The families, who accuse the medical profession of acting "unlawfully" are seeking compensation comparable to the £5,000 paid out to families in the Alder Hey scandal.

Richard Lissack QC, for the claimants, said that despite organ removal and retention being common at the time, it was objectionable on moral, ethical and legal grounds when done "without the knowledge, let alone the agreement of the relatives".

The NHS Litigation Authority denies anything unlawful was done in the cases before the court.

Consumed by guilt

When Mr Lissack asked Mrs Harris what she would do with any compensation from the case, she said she and her husband, David, planned to buy the land where Rossina was buried so she could "rest in peace".

On Monday, the court heard how the bereaved mother used regularly to visit her daughter's grave, but stopped going for nearly two years, and was now consumed by guilt whenever she did.

The government is currently introducing new laws to ban the retention of organs without consent in the wake of the scandal at Alder Hey Children's Hospital on Merseyside.

The hearing continues.