A family from Penang suffered a double tragedy when they turned up at a mortuary to claim their father’s body only to be told that it had been cremated by “someone else”.
According to a report by The Star Online, the family of 60-year-old Fong Meng Tuck, who passed away in a road accident on Monday, had turned up at the Penang Hospital to claim Meng Tuck’s body for funeral rites.
Meng Tuck’s son, Edward Fong, told the news portal that after signing the body release form, the hospital staff told the family that his father’s body wasn’t at the mortuary.
They were shocked when the hospital staff returned later to tell them that “someone else” had claimed the body.
“After waiting for about an hour, a family member of another person who had died and whose body was also at the mortuary, told us that the family had mistakenly claimed my father’s body earlier, and that the cremation had taken place,” Edward was quoted by The Star Online as saying.
A clearly distraught Edward added that his family had not only lost a dear family member, but they also lost a chance to pay their last respects.
“My father was a healthy man. We didn’t expect to lose him so soon. Since he had left us, we just wanted to have a decent farewell for him. But now what we have is just some ashes,” he was further quoted as saying.
‘Hospital staff did not follow SOP’
Penang Hospital Visitors Board chairman Lim Thoon Deong told the news portal that a hospital staff had allegedly mixed up Meng Tuck’s body with the decomposed body of one Ho Swee Kim.
“This incident happened as the staff did not follow the standard operating procedure for body claims, and had allegedly passed on Meng Tuck’s body to a representative of a funeral services provider, without confirming the identity of the body,” Lim was quoted as saying.
Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement cited by The Star Online that the hospital staff has been suspended and will face stern action for violating the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of Forensic Medicine Service.
“A probe has been carried out and stern disciplinary action will be taken against the staff.
“The Ministry has ordered all the hospitals to improve their SOP to ensure that a similar incident does not recur,” Dr Noor said in the statement.
DNA results will be released on Thursday
Meanwhile, The New Straits Times reported that Edward and his two siblings had given their blood samples to the Penang Hospital to facilitate DNA testing.
The DNA testing was done to determine if the ashes they received were indeed their father’s, or someone else’s.
Edward’s elder sister, 34-year-old Fong I Wen, told the daily that they will only seek legal redress after receiving the test results, which will reportedly be ready on Thursday.
“We are hoping for a positive result, otherwise, this will only cause our family hardship in having a proper burial for our father.
“After we obtain the DNA result, the death certificate will be issued,” she was quoted by the daily as saying.
