Delay in report on baby organs being sent abroad for incineration by Cork hospital 'absolutely devastating'

FAMILIES of infants who died and whose organs were sent from Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) to be incinerated overseas without the knowledge of bereaved parents have described further delays in being furnished with a report on how it occurred as “absolutely devastating”.

Last year RTÉ Investigates revealed that the organs of 18 babies had been sent for incineration from CUMH to Belgium in 2020 along with clinical waste.

A review of the incidents was initially expected to be completed in October or November last year but was delayed.

This September, families were informed that they would receive a copy of the draft report of the review by “mid-late September”.

Families have now learned that they must wait for the final report, instead of a draft copy that had been promised in previous communications from the team conducting the review. 

Leona Bermingham, the mother of one of the babies, said families discovered via the Patient Advocacy Service that they must wait for the final report, news she described as “absolutely devastating”.

She expressed frustration that some people will have access to the draft report while families are still left without answers.

“Having this hanging over us is just devastating for us really.

“We have to carry on and continue to go to work and everything else and we don’t know when we’re getting this report, there’s no completion date,” Ms Bermingham told The Echo.

Ms Bermingham and her partner Glenn Callanan were the first of the 18 families to go public about the scandal. 

Their son Lee died hours after Leona had given birth to him and twin brother Lewis by emergency C-section.

She said it has now been two years since they learned of the scandal and said the ongoing delays in furnishing the families with the report shows “no comion” for those impacted.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he has been informed that the report will be shared with the families “in the next few weeks”.

“But I appreciate they’re not going to believe that until it actually happens, given their previous experience,” he added.

The Fine Gael leader offered again his “deepest sympathy” to the families who learned that their infants’ organs had been disposed of without consent.

He also said planned new laws dealing with concerns raised by the infant organ disposal scandal will come before the Government for approval by the end of the month.