A Peruvian mother has claimed that she was forced to keep her dead baby’s body in her fridge after a hospital, where the premature child was born, delayed in providing her with a death certificate.
Monica Palomino said her baby was born prematurely after a gestation of only 25 weeks and died on Monday.
But under pressure from security personnel at Lima’s Sergio Bernales hospital, she had to take the body home until she could begin the process of getting a death certificate.
She told AFP, “He’s in the refrigerator in my house because they did not give me the time to do the paperwork for his death certificate. I want to bury him but to do so I need the death certificate.”
The woman said her baby is still in her freezer at home, where she has placed a sign that says “Do Not Touch”.
“I want to bury him but to do so I need the death certificate,” said the mother, who returned to the hospital to claim the death certificate.
“The woman in charge of the gynecology department did not want to let me leave the hospital if I didn’t take my baby. My baby was wrapped in a diaper.”
Hospital director Julio Silva said Wednesday it would investigate the woman’s complaint because he said the security guards had broken all the hospital’s procedures.
“I assume full responsibility. What should have been done is wait in the mortuary for the death certificate to be issued, to then be able to remove the body,” Silva told reporters.
This is not the first time such inhumane behavior by hospital staff has come to light. In May 2009, a woman from Crawley, West Suss3x in England alleged that when she called a hospital after suffering a miscarriage while at home, she was advised to put the dead fetus in her fridge for two days until her scheduled appointment.
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