Coroner not told of children's deaths

The Department of Health has sought a full report from a Dublin hospital about its failure to report the deaths of two children in 1985 and 1994 to either the Dublin City Coroner or gardai. In both cases the hospital had told the parents that a coroner's post-mortem was a legal requirement.

The Minister of State for Health, Dr Tom Moffatt, said Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin was "currently engaged in a thorough search of its records" in relation to the two children, Lorraine Yeates (5), who died in the hospital in June 1985, and Michael Reilly (five months), who died at the hospital in December 1994.

He was speaking for the Minister, Mr Martin, who was unable to be present as he was meeting the Parents for Justice, which has lobbied for an inquiry into organ retention.

The issue was raised by Mr Jim Higgins, Fine Gael's justice spokesman, who called for the inquiry into organ retention to be a full, public statutory inquiry.

Dr Moffatt reiterated the Minister's comments that the terms of reference, scope and form of the inquiry were still under discussion with a number of people, including the Attorney General and Parents for Justice.

Last month, Mr Martin announced his intention to hold an inquiry into issues relating to post-mortems, organ removal, organ retention and organ disposal at the Crumlin hospital.

He said that families had already been traumatised about the unauthorised withholding of their children's organs, but the failure to notify the coroner or gardai clearly flouted the Coroner's Act.

Outlining the cases of the two children, Mr Higgins said that a hospital doctor told Lorraine's parents that he was obliged to perform a post-mortem but when her mother contacted the City Coroner's Office for a full post-mortem report, she was informed that Lorraine's death was not reported to the office and was told that an in-house post-mortem was apparently carried out by the hospital, which subsequently registered the death.

In Michael Reilly's case, his mother was also told that a post-mortem was a legal requirement, which was carried out on December 14th, 1994, the day after he died. The child's heart and lungs were removed and retained. When his mother contacted the Dublin City Coroner's office, she was informed that the office was never notified of his death.