A Boston couple whose premature baby died days after birth is suing the hospital where she was born for losing her corpse.
Everleigh McCarthy was born three months early at Brigham and Women’s Hospital but died 12 days later on Aug. 6, 2020. However, hospital officials could not retrieve her body as the family prepared for her burial. It was later determined that Everleigh’s body might have been mistaken for soiled linens and discarded.
“It was traumatic when she passed away, but we’ve been re-traumatized when we learned that the hospital threw her away like trash,” the baby’s parents, Alana Ross and Daniel McCarthy, said in a statement.
Everleigh was born July 25, 2020, weighing slightly over 2 pounds. She developed a brain bleed and was placed in the newborn intensive care unit. Less than two weeks later, doctors told the couple that the baby had no chance of surviving, so Everleigh’s parents agreed to take her off a ventilator.
After holding Everleigh for the last time, Ross and McCarthy handed her to a nurse who cleaned and dressed her in a white gown, according to reports.
Morgue records show that Everleigh’s body was sent to the morgue the day she died. But, according to the lawsuit, a hospital staffer placed the baby on a metal rack, which was “not the appropriate or designated place for the delivery of infant remains to the morgue.”
When the funeral home came to collect the body four days later, Everleigh’s remains were missing. A pathologist who worked in the morgue believes he threw the remains in the soiled linen container, not realizing she was likely among the fabric. He told hospital officials that Everleigh’s corpse was “not left in the right location,” was “wrapped in a blanket,” and had “no identifying markers on the outside of the blanket,” the lawsuit says.
“It’s like she died all over again,” Ross said.
Video footage from the morgue also reportedly shows the pathologist holding the linens.
“It should be noted that detectives were not provided the complete video from the time ‘Baby Ross’ arrived at the morgue cooler to the time it was observed that ‘Baby Ross’ was known to be missing,” the police report says.
Boston police said they spent hours digging through “blood-soaked clothing, feces-covered linens and other medical waste” at a waste transfer station looking for Everleigh, but her remains have yet to be found.
Ross and McCarthy filed a lawsuit against the hospital on Thursday, June 23. They are not seeking a specific amount in monetary damages but are requesting that the case goes before a jury. The couple hopes the lawsuit will prevent the tragedy from happening to another family.
“We don’t want anybody else to go through this,” Ross said. “We want the hospital to be held accountable. We want them to fix this.”
The hospital’s chief medical officer Dr. Sunil Eappen said the hospital “readily and transparently shared the details with the patient’s family.”
“We continue to express our deepest sympathies and most sincere apologies to the Ross and McCarthy family for their loss and the heartbreaking circumstances surrounding it,” Eappen said.
“We always evaluate both system and human factors that contribute to errors or potential issues raised by patients, family members, or staff and take action.”
However, the family’s attorney, Greg Henning, argued the hospital was not forthcoming. Ross and McCarthy have not held a formal funeral service for Everleigh almost two years later because they are “dealing with the grief of the loss.”
“Based on their review of the investigation, and more importantly the conclusions of the Boston police investigation, it does not appear that the hospital’s conduct could be described in any way as transparent,” Henning said.
