A heartbroken mum is preparing to bury her daughter for a second time after getting her final remains some 26 years after her death.
Rita Kavanagh, from Ballymun in Dublin, lost her baby Jessica when she was just six months old – on December 18, 1996.
She learned three years later that Temple Street Children’s Hospital had “cut her up” and kept some of her child’s organs – but not her brain.
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The hospital told the family that Jessica’s brain had been sent to either Germany or Wales for incineration, but the paperwork had been lost, so no confirmation of the organ’s whereabouts could be ever given.
Having written to the hospital again recently, Rita learned some of Jessica remains were still held there in a lab.
Nearly 50 samples of the little one’s remains were given back to the Kavanagh family on March 23 this year and now the baby’s second funeral has been arranged for this Wednesday.
Speaking exclusively to the Irish Sunday Mirror, mum Rita said: “They threw her away like a piece of cabbage after cutting her up.
“She had Edwards’ Syndrome, she died naturally, there was never any need for an autopsy, there was no need for our baby to be cut up and treated like she was nothing.
“Crumlin hospital told us she shouldn’t have had an autopsy.
“I wasn’t even told about the autopsy – I had to learn it for myself when I took off her little hat.
“It is hard enough dealing with a child dying on you, but to know for 25 years in your head that the hospital did something wrong like this.
“It’s like hospitals can do whatever they like. This is very wrong.
“There are still people today who still say to me ‘you should move on’ and I want to say that is very hurtful.
“My child is not here to fight for herself. If someone wants to come and live in my head and take over our suffering and what’s been going on for 25 years in my head, come and live with us and know what it’s like.
“A wrong was done on our child and we are the ones left trying to fix it and fight for her.
“I’ve another funeral to organise for Jessica, but her brain is missing, it’s gone, and I’ll never get that back.
“My little girl did nothing wrong and she didn’t deserve this”.
Rita and her husband Jimmy welcomed the arrival of their then fourth child, gorgeous Jessica, on June 10, 1996.
However, she was diagnosed with Edwards’ Syndrome, a severe genetic condition that affects how a child’s body develops and grows. It is a life limiting condition.
Little Jessica’s health deteriorated at four months and she suffered many seizures and was tube fed.
Sadly, she passed away in her mother’s arms at their home on December 18, 1996, and was later taken into hospital by ambulance.
When Rita and Jimmy were given Jessica’s remains back, they noticed she was wearing a hat and, knowing the child never liked hats, they instantly removed it.
Rita said: “That’s when I saw she had been cut up. I nearly died myself, I was never told anything, I had to find out that way.
“They took her brain out and cut her up all around her chest. I never knew her brain was gone until three years later. I was horrified. I can’t explain the feeling.
“I had to leave her there in the hospital and go home and tell my other children about the autopsy as I knew they would take her hat off.
“When you know she gave her all to live, and for them to cut her up like that, there was no need for it, and then to take parts of her and throw it in a fire, like it was an old head of cabbage when it was part of her, it was her brain.
“They just discarded it and didn’t tell me.”
The Dunne Inquiry was set up following the organ retention scandal, which emerged here after making the news in the UK in 1998 when a chance remark by a heart specialist was picked up by the media.
It was then revealed that thousands of children’s organs had been removed and retained by Irish hospitals without the permission of their families.
Rita said she was “never at ease” over the autopsy and went back to the hospital asking them if they had done something else with her daughter’s organs, only to be told “no”.
But she sensed something was wrong and continued to ask the hospital about her concerns.
It was three years later when the hospital confirmed Rita and Jimmy’s worst fears.
She added: “I was part of that Dunne Inquiry and Micheal Martin told us this would never happen again. I want him to know that I’m after receiving more of Jessica last week, nearly a quarter of a century after she died.”
Rita said she remembers the day Jessica passed away “like it was yesterday”. She said: “She wasn’t well, I had to get her oxygen, we were up all night. I asked Jimmy to ring an ambulance. I knew she wasn’t well.
“When the ambulance came, I knew she was dead in my arms.
“I feel comfort that she died in my arms and the two of us, me and Jimmy, were with her. That gives us comfort.”
But Rita blames herself for what happened, saying if she kept Jessica at home when she died, the hospital could never have “cut her up”.
She said: “To this day I believe I let my daughter down.
“She fought so hard to live and I let her go in the ambulance when she died instead of keeping her at home.
“I always believe if I never let her go with the ambulance the hospital could not have done this to her.
“It is disgraceful. She was a little person, my child, and I want everyone to know my daughter and what the hospital did to her and how we only got the last of her body back last week. We are very proud of Jessica and this should never ever happen again.
“We will have a very special service for her on 6th April and I’m asking the public to hold her in their hearts and if they can, think of her on that day.”
In a statement, Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) said: “CHI cannot comment on individual cases.
“When a patient or family makes personal information public, this does not relieve the hospital/CHI of its duty to preserve/uphold patient confidentiality at all times.
“CHI is in contact directly with this family. The historical practice of organ retention without consent is an extremely painful and traumatic experience for those families affected. This should not have happened.
“The HSE Standards and Recommended Practices 2012 were developed and implemented in all acute services where post mortem examinations are completed following publication of the Madden Inquiry (2005) and Retained Organs Audit (Willis 2009) – CHI is compliant with these standards and practices. CHI participated in a national audit by the HSE in late 2021 of our post mortem practices. Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) provides multidisciplinary care to children who die at our hospitals, and their families, in keeping with best practice.
“In situations where options are restricted by law, for example, a coroner’s post mortem examination, families will be kept fully informed in all matters relating to the care of their child who has died and be supported to be as involved as is appropriate to their situation.”
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