by Long Island Attorney Paul A. Lauto, Esq.
Plaintiff's estranged mother Mary O'Leary died in a Brooklyn, NY hospital of terminal cancer, after a 15 day hospitalization. Before plaintiff was notified of her mother's death approximately three months after the fact, the hospital donated O'Leary's body to medical research, as they claimed they were unable to identify the person. The remains were buried in an unknown location in Potter's Field.
Plaintiff sued the hospital claiming they negligently failed to identify her mother's corpse and failed to properly complete the certificate of death. Plaintiff maintained that as a result, she suffered mental anguish, depression, anxiety and deprivation of her right to properly grieve the loss of her mother.
Plaintiff further claimed, that after failing to properly complete the certificate of death and incorrectly listing her mother as a black female, the hospital retrieved five documents belonging to O'Leary. The retrieved documents included, among other things, O'Leary's driver's license. Plaintiff contended that the hospital even used the information from the retrieved documents to get paid by Medicare, but did not correct the death certificate.
Read the details and about what the defendant hospital claimed, in our latest Scales of Justice blog at http://www.liattorney.com.
