Tiffany Griffin and Chad Greaves have filed a lawsuit against Bryn Mawr Hospital, accusing them misplacing the remains of their miscarried baby.
When Griffin was just 18 weeks pregnant, she found out that her baby wasn’t going to make it. The baby has been diagnosed with several genetic disorders and would likely be miscarried.
After Griffin lost the baby she wrote her name on several forms releasing the remains to a funeral home in Upper Darby, close to the couple’s home.
According to the lawsuit, the hospital mistakenly gave Donohue Funeral Home Griffin’s placenta, and the funeral home didn’t verify the package’s contents before proceeding with cremation. Seventeen days later, the remains were found in the hospital, misplaced.
“They just treated our daughter like she was an animal or something,” Griffin said. “There’s no way a body should sit in a hospital that long and nobody notices it.”
Griffin and Greaves were eventually able to see the remains and had them sent to another funeral home for cremation.
They wanted to know where the body had been, who found it, and how the mistake happened.
“I haven’t held any big, crazy jobs like that, but I’ve been a McDonald’s manager, and I know if anything goes wrong, you’re responsible for it … and no one wanted to own up to their mistake,” Greaves said. “That’s all we really wanted, was an explanation. We don’t know, really, what even happened.”
The couple struggled to process their grief months after the incident. Griffin talked to a therapist and was briefly admitted to a crisis center after suffering a mental breakdown. Greaves had trouble sleeping as he tried to cope with his emotions.
Main Line Health acknowledged their mistake.
“We were deeply upset to learn of this mistake, which added to the grief Ms. Griffin and Mr. Greaves were already experiencing. We shared with the couple our sincerest apologies, and once again extend our sympathies for their loss and the pain they experienced thereafter,” said Bridget Therriault, a spokesperson for Main Line Health.
The couples seeks more than $50,000 in damages.
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