Baby heart claimants urged to rethink

If parents win court damages from Green Lane Hospital for keeping babies' hearts, they will be depriving hundreds of Aucklanders of surgery, a health chief says.

Eighty-three families are suing the former hospital and the Crown for $90,000 each - $7.47 million in total.

They each want $60,000 compensation for pain and suffering plus $30,000 in exemplary damages to dissuade hospitals from taking organs without the consent of a deceased child's family - and a strengthening of parental-consent law.

The hospital revealed in 2002 that it had a research collection of more than 1300 organs, mainly hearts taken from children who had died of congenital heart problems.

Consent to take and retain the organs had not been sought from many of the families, although before about 1990, consent procedures nationally were weak.

A preliminary hearing was held in the High Court at Wellington yesterday to discuss procedural matters. If the case goes to a trial, it is not expected to be held until next year.

The case names the defendants as the Attorney-General and the Residual Health Management Unit, which handles liabilities for district health boards' predecessors.

Auckland District Health Board chairman Wayne Brown said yesterday that many people wrongly thought the Government had "an endless pot of money".

Seven hip replacements could be performed for $90,000, he said.

"Do they feel that denying seven people a hip replacement is a good idea - is it worth it? That's a question these people have got to think about. That's what they are asking to do."

But Dawn Bailey, whose inquiries triggered the hospital's revealing of the scale of its collection and the consent problems, said that for her the case was not about money.

"It's about putting it right and making sure it doesn't happen to anyone else.

" ... you have to go for damages because that's the only way New Zealand law allows us to do it and this allows us to push for a law change."

Ms Bailey, a Wellington mother of two and a nurse, initially wanted a formal inquiry, but when that failed to happen she began legal action.

She said her baby daughter Ashleigh's heart was removed without consent in 1991 following an autopsy. She had been flown to Auckland for surgery to correct several heart defects but died 6 1/2 weeks later of post-operative complications.

After the 2002 offer to return hearts, Ms Bailey allowed the hospital to retain Ashleigh's.

"It [the organ collection] is for the advancement of medical science. You have to do research and in some cases work on actual organs or body parts. My objection is the lack of informed consent."

The lawyer taking the case, John Miller, said the law "isn't clear as to who has the right to do certain things to the deceased". The plaintiffs want the judge to state what the law is and what people could do to a child's body without parental consent.

"Our view is that you shouldn't be able to do anything without consent, living or dead."

The heart collection

* Green Lane Hospital revealed in 2002 that it had a research collection of more than 1300 organs, mainly hearts taken from children who had died of congenital heart problems.
* Many of the affected parents were unaware.
* The collection began in 1950.
* In 2002, the hospital invited potentially affected families to make contact.
* Within eight months, 180 hearts had been returned to parents or relatives.