Wrong bodies – Has it ever happened to you?

A recent news story reported that the wrong body was

cremated in place of MEP (Member of the European

Parliament) Philip Bradbourn. By chance another man,

Philip Bradburn, had died at around the same time and,

although the deaths happened at different hospitals,

both bodies had been taken to the same mortuary in

the West Midlands. Needless to say, the family of Mr

Bradbourn MEP was very distressed and another

funeral service and cremation had to be arranged.

There seem to have been a number of issues at play in

this situation; the similarity of the two names was

obviously a major factor and the mortuary should have

anticipated the danger of a mix up. The funeral of Mr

Bradbourn MEP was organised by his chief of staff and

presumably there was no viewing. Mr Bradburn’s

funeral was organised by Social Services and he is

thought to have had no immediate family.

The error would have been compounded had one of the

families wanted burial instead but, as is the case in over

70% of UK funerals, both bodies were to be cremated

anyway. Nonetheless, attending a service and

cremation of what turned out to be the wrong body -

and then having to go through it all again - can only

have added to the grief of family and friends.

The local Health Authority said that in 10 years similar

incidents had occurred three times, though the error

had previously been picked up prior to cremation. A

quick Google search reveals any number of ‘wrong body

in casket’ and ‘wrong body cremated’ headlines but

that fact that these incidents still rate as ‘news’ at least

shows that such mistakes continue to be relatively rare.

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