WELLINGTON HOSPITAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 May 1937, Page 7

WELLINGTON HOSPITAL

DISPOSAL OF MAN’S BODY [per press association.] WELLINGTON, April 30. After an unsuccessful attempt by Mr. A. W. Croskery, at a meeting of the Wellington Hospital Board on Thursday night to ventilate a charge that a body had been sent to the Medical School of the University of Otago without consent, and that burial expenses had subsequently been charged against the estate, details of the case were outlined by Mr. Croskery in a statement to the “Dominion” today. At the board meeting on Thursday night, Mr. Croskery said it appeared that the Wellington Hospital, in common with other hospitals, was in the habit of sending bodies to the Medical School at Dunedin. He had been asked by the friends of a deceased person to inquire why his body was sent to Dunedin without their having been first advised, and whether it was fair that the estate of a deceased person should be charged with the burial expenses. The chairman, Mr. J. Glover, ruled that the case should go before the proper committee, whereupon Mr. Croskery stated his intention of giving the matter publicity.

“The actual facts of the case are these,” said Mr. Croskery to-day. “The death occurred on December 21, .1936. On January 4, 1937, a gentleman with whom the man who had died had resided for nine years received a bill from the board for 9/-, being one day’s hospital expenses. He states that he saw the secretary of the board, and discussed with him the burial of the deceased; but he failed to mention that the body was then in Dunedin. On January 7 this friend received a letter from the secretary asking him to call and interview the pathologist at the institution, and discuss with him certain matters relative to the burial. On January 30 he received the following letter from the secretary: — ‘Further to my letter of the 7th instant, I am assuming that as you have not called upon Dr. Mercer, the pathologist, you have no objection to raise to the removal of the late ’s body to Dunedin for examination.’ “The undertaker who forwarded the body to Dunedin received his instructions from the Board on December 23, exactly five weeks before consent to the removal was asked for, and had shipped the body, he states, by December 28. The deceased person’s estate was then charged with funeral expenses at the Dunedin end to a sum of £l7; but £4 was deducted from this for carriage of the body, as it is understood that, the Union Steam Ship Company does not make charges to the Medical School. In addition to the £l7, £5/10/- was added for burial expenses in Wellington, making a total sum of £lB/10/- against the estate. The tragedy of the whole matter is that this old man had expressed a wish to his friends that they should not allow his body to be interfered with. It appears a strange state of affairs when officers of an institution, knowing that a body has been shipped five weeks before, should then set about securing consent.” SECRETARY’S STATEMENT When inquiries were made to-night, the secretary of the Wellington Hospital Board (Mr. J. B. I. Cook) said the deceased person referred to by Croskery had no relatives in New Zealand, the only relative, so far as the board knew, being a sister in England. The people who communicated their complaint to Mr. Croskery did not appear on the scene (so far as the board was concerned) until at least a week after the? man’s death. They then made inquiries about the burial. Mr. Cook said that he in turn made inquiries from the hospital department concerned, and found that the body had been sent to Dunedin. Mr. Cook said that in cases where no relatives of deceased persons could be traced, it was not. an uncommon hospital practice, if a case had special medical features, for the bodies to be sent to Dunedin for investigation in the interests of the community generally. In this case no information had been made available either to the board or to the ward that the man had friends who could be communicated with. As soon as the actual position was reported to the hoard, the Otago Medical School authorities were advised and the body was returned to Wellington and buried in the deceased’s own plot in Karori Cemetery. Mr. Cook said he could not understand why any question of funeral expenses in Dunedin should have been raised. The only funeral expenses would be those in Wellington, which would have accrued had the removal of the body to Dunedin never occurred.