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Capital Health apologizes for failure over donated body

Marlene Newhook suffered from two medical conditions that caused her pain and led to her death: fibromyalgia and primary biliary cirrohsis of the liver.

Helping others who also battle health issues was a cause that the Dartmouth woman took with her to her grave. Her last wish was that her organs be harvested for donation and that her body be given to science.

"Maybe I can help someone to understand and find some solutions," she wrote in her will in 2009.

Newhook, 66, died on Feb. 2 at Dartmouth General Hospital, days after she'd fallen at home.

Her son, Ray Desjardins, who spent the last ten years sharing an apartment and caring for her, wanted to ensure her final wishes were fulfilled.

One week after she died, he called the Dalhousie University Medical School to see if it had received her body. That's when he got some surprising news: her body wasn't there. The school's body donation program had no record of Newhook's death.

Desjardins says he and one of his sisters, her power of attorney and legal executor respectively, had signed the necessary paperwork the day before she died. But he was told those documents were missing from her file.

He says a call from the school forced the hospital — Dartmouth General — to find her body.

'She was lying in that morgue'

Staff discovered she was still in the hospital morgue, forgotten.

"To me it feels like she was left alone, you know. It feels like they diminished her in some way," said Desjardins. "Knowing that she was lying in that morgue ... and I couldn't do anything about it. I think that's what hurts the most."

Desjardins says the treatment of his mother's body is especially painful because he considers her part of the hospital family. Newhook was one of the original workers in Dartmouth General's kitchen.

"Not to expect special care, but dignity care. That's the big thing for me."

With Newhook's body stored in the morgue for a week, it was too late for any of her organs to be donated, something she had stipulated on her health card.

Desjardins, who's also signed his donor card, says the unkept promises have left him wracked with guilt.

"Knowing that her last wishes will be something I can never ever accomplish — I feel that was taken away from me."

Desjardins's hope for accountability in the management of body and organ donations prompted him to go public to CBC.

'We are sorry'

Not long after, Capital Health, the regional district health authority, issued a statement to CBC. It says "we are sorry" for the "communication breakdown that resulted in a delay in notifying the patient's family that the donation process could not be completed.

"It is unfortunate and we sincerely regret this incident. Our staff are currently reviewing processes ... to help ensure this issue does not occur again."

Desjardins wants that apology in writing. He regards Capital Health's promise to review its policies with wary skepticism. With so many hospital employees, he thinks a sweeping education program would be needed.

And Desjardins believes oversight by the Dalhousie Medical School and an organ donation group would be required to ensure staff learn everything entailed in donation.

He shudders to think how long his mother's body would've gone unnoticed if he hadn't called. On the website for the school's body donation program, it says a body can be kept for up to three years for research purposes.

A spokesperson for Capital Health says he didn't know how long a body could potentially go unaccounted.

Lack of closure compounds grief

Desjardins says this whole experience has left him without closure as he struggles to grieve and honour his mother's memory.

She grew up in an alcoholic home and that led her to join Al-Anon. She volunteered as a sponsor to multiple people at a time. A sponsor commits to being a source of support to other family members or friends of alcoholics at any time of the day or night. Newhook marked 25 years as a member of Al-Anon last year.

She was also dedicated to self improvement. Newhook earned her grade 12 equivalency after 30 years away from school. She even read up about quantum physics in order to better understand a novel.

The family has been told the medical school has enough cadavers, so Newhook's body has been cremated. She leaves behind three children. They are currently fundraising online to buy a cemetery marker.