Morgue blunder (From Penarth Times)

Morgue blunder

A FORMER Penarth woman has criticised Llandough Hospital, after a morgue mix-up meant her late twin sister's body was given to the wrong family.

The mistake is the second at Penarth's main hospital in recent months - only this week a funeral director revealed how their vigilance had prevented another family being given the wrong body.

Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust has launched an immediate investigation.

The first blunder was revealed when Liz Roberts-Morgan, 59, flew home from holiday in Greece for her twin Mary Williams' funeral, only to discover her body had been given to the wrong family by the morgue.

Days later, Pidgeons Funeral Directors revealed they discovered a similar potential mistake at the hospital in February.

Heartbroken Mrs Roberts-Morgan, who lived in Plymouth Road in the 1960s, was told by funeral directors her sister's body had been given to another Williams family the week before.

Mrs Roberts-Morgan's sister, who died of a heart attack, had been given a religious service by the other family.

But Mrs Roberts-Morgan, now living in Whitchurch, says her sister was not religious and had wanted a humanist ceremony.

She said: "This is a terrible shock. The other family wanted to embalm the body, but were told they couldn't because she had hepatitis.

"It's my sister who had it. If only they had looked into that further, they might have queried the name. Also, the other woman was ten years older."

Mrs Roberts-Morgan added: "I've been completely ignored by Llandough Hospital. I'll be consulting my solicitor."

A Cardiff and Vale NHS spokesman said: "At this stage we don't yet know how this occurred, but we fully recognise the distress to all those involved and we will keep the families informed as the full facts become known."

The other blunder happened when Pidgeons discovered two women with the same christian name had been mixed up.

The funeral directors say the women were in neighbouring beds and when one of them died, the nurse put the wrong label on the body.

The Trust spokesman said: "An incident was prevented in February due to the vigilance of mortuary staff and the funeral director.

"Checking procedures are in place to ensure the correct bodies are released for funerals."