Grim task for parents in organ scandal

Families are being warned against reawakening old grief. JEREMY LAURANCE reports.

LONDON - Hospitals are being besieged with calls from people inquiring about body parts removed from dead relatives as the grim details of the Alder Hey organ scandal cause outrage around Britain.

NHS Direct, the national telephone helpline, took 3000 calls and local hospital switchboards were jammed yesterday as hundreds of callers submitted requests for information following revelations that the bodies of children undergoing post mortems at Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool were systematically stripped of their organs.

A leading expert in bereavement warned families thinking of making inquiries about a dead relative that it could reawaken old grief.

Professor Colin Murray Parkes, former consultant psychiatrist at the Royal London Hospital and president of Cruse, the bereavement charity, said: "If a family [of someone who had died] came to me and asked did I think it was a good idea for them to explore this, I would say probably not. But I would not want to cover up what went on."

An inquiry into the Royal Children's Liverpool NHS Trust, which includes Alder Hey, published on Wednesday, condemned the scale and the manner in which organs were taken and recommended that the pathologist responsible, Professor Dick van Velzen, should never be allowed to practise in the UK again.

He could also face prosecution after the inquiry chairman, Michael Redfern, QC, recommended a copy of the report be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

A second report by the Government's chief medical officer, Professor Liam Donaldson, revealed that more than 100,000 organs, body parts, stillbirths and foetuses were held in 210 hospitals and medical schools around the country, many taken or kept illegally.

The Prime Minister condemned the practices revealed in the reports "without reservation" and said they must never be repeated. Tony Blair told the Commons it was essential to clarify the basis on which consent to organ removal was given and said it should be a criminal offence to ignore the wishes of families.

The macabre task of reuniting families with the missing organs of their dead relatives has begun. Hospitals have been taking details from callers and promising to contact them later so that full and accurate details of organs held can be given.

One of the key criticisms of Alder Hey was the slipshod manner in which management handled inquiries so that body parts were returned to families piece by piece, requiring second, third and fourth funerals.

Jenni Thomas, director of the Child Bereavement Foundation, said families who were alarmed by the revelations should be encouraged to find out what had happened to their own children. "If they don't, they will worry about it," she said.However, some parents had called the trust to say they had no objection to their child's organs being retained and were glad they had been put to good use for research.

- HERALD CORRESPONDENT