Wrong Woman Buried: Funeral Home Admits “Mistake”

Wrong Woman Buried

Two families near Inglewood, California, are dealing with the results of a very regrettable mistake by employees of the Simpson Family Mortuary. One woman was mistakenly laid to rest on March 1st, even though her family and friends had mentioned to the funeral director that she did not look like the right woman.

Evans Davidson, husband of 82-year old Darlene Davidson, told NBCLA that he “was pretty sure it wasn’t my wife – unless she did some awful changing.”

Mortuary officials had told the family she looked different because of the embalming process she had been put through, and continued with services, including burying the casket.

When a second family made similar complaints about their loved one, staff at Simpson realized there had been a mistake, and that the two women had been mistakenly placed in the wrong coffins.

The mortuary has offered to exhume the mistakenly buried casket, and to cover the expenses for both families to have proper burials.

spokesman for Simpson’s, Dr. Reginald Black, said the wrong woman had been buried in Darlene Davidson’s grave.

“We have standards and systems in place to insure as much as we can that these type of things don’t happen; however, we are human beings and we can make mistakes,” Black said.

Not the first time something like this happened

Co-operative Funeralcare, which was investigated last year for questionable practices, again is in the news for sending the wrong body to Britley Crematorium for cremation. The error wasn’t noticed until they were preparing for another funeral.

The families were notified immediately, but the funeral had all ready taken place with the wrong body in the casket.

Claiming client confidentiality, Funeralcare gave only sketchy information that the two workers responsible were fired.

A spokesman for Co-operative Funeralcare said: “A serious breach of our strict procedures occurred and following a thorough investigation two members of staff have been dismissed.

“Once the issue came to light, we immediately notified the families concerned and apologised for any distress caused and we have liaised closely with the crematoria. We remain in close contact with the families.

“In the interests of client confidentiality we are unable to comment further.”

A spokesman for Gateshead Council said: “We understand how very difficult this must be for the families involved.

“We have carried out investigations and all indications are that all of our standard procedures were followed.”

Gateshead Council investigated and states “normal procedures were followed.”

The Britley Crematorium is due to be shutdown for cost cutting measures.

Co-operative Funeralcare was investigated last year when it was discovered that bodies were being warehoused and stacked up on each other like boxes for storage. There were also reports that overworked staff were “stacking bodies” and “treating bodies like luggage.”

Now the families are mourning the wrong loved ones in the wrong final resting place.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/03/12/Wrong-woman-buried-by-California-mortuary/8521363103958/#ixzz2NNBKCvrb

On The Web:

Wrong woman buried following Calif. mortuary mix-up
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/wrong-woman-buried-mortuary-mix-up-article-1.1286433