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Subscribe to RSSThe wrong body was cremated after an unfortunate mix-up at a hospice facility in Denver. KUSA-TV's Kyle Clark reports.
The grief of two Colorado families was compounded when the bodies of their loved ones got switched, resulting in the wrong patient getting cremated, a Denver investigation has discovered. The deceased men, one who was white and the other who was black, were wearing identification wristbands at the time of the mix-up.
Robert Mitchell, of Denver, and Perry Heath, of Aurora, Colo., died at The Denver Hospice on Nov. 10, according to an investigation by Denver's 9News.com. The families began their respective funeral preparations; unbeknownst to them, many Colorado funeral homes outsource their work, and their late family members were about to go through a complex maze of third-party providers.
Perry Heath was supposed to be cremated. His family arranged for a cremation through 5280 Cremation and Funeral Services of Aurora, according to 9News. Despite its name, 5280 Cremation does not perform cremations, and outsourced the work to a third-party provider.
That same day, reported 9News, Robert Mitchell's family made arrangements for his burial. They hired Taylor Funeral and Cremation Services, also of Aurora, to handle his viewing, and funeral. Taylor doesn't have a mortuary, though, so they hired a transport company to pick up Mitchell's body and take it to a separate embalming company.
The outsourced transport workers arrived at The Denver Hospice on Nov. 10 for Mitchell and Heath as scheduled, but that's when things went wrong.
According to 9News, Metropolitan Mortuary Services took Heath's body, slapping a band on his wrist with Mitchell's name on it next to one that bore his real name. And SI Funeral Services removed Mitchell's body from the hospice.
The error became evident when Taylor Funeral Home received Heath's body a few days before what was supposed to be Mitchell's viewing and funeral. Mitchell is black, and this white body clearly wasn't his. Meantime, Mitchell had been cremated by another company.
Both transport contractors blamed The Denver Hospice. They told 9News they were directed to the bodies by staff members.
New processes put into place
The Denver Hospice said it will now require nurses, not other staff, to accompany transport contractors to patients' rooms.
"We're sorry that this happened and we've put in new processes, training procedures and oversight to make sure nothing like this happens again. And we ask people to trust that we are taking very good care of their loved ones," Janelle McCallum, chief clinical officer at The Denver Hospice, told 9News. "The care and concern that we show when the person is in our care, and the precision that we use when they're there, has to also be shown as they're leaving."
A nurse will check each patient's ID wristband before signing paperwork allowing the body to be removed, she added.
Due to the mix-up, reported 9News, Mitchell was cremated and buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery under Heath's name. He has since been disinterred.
"The [hospice] should have checked as well as the people who picked up these bodies," Marcus Mitchell, Robert Mitchell's son, told 9News.
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News????? Locally this story is several weeks old but had laid dormant for the past week or so until yesterday the hospice that was in part responsible came forward to announce it was instituting new measure to try to make sure that a similar mistake doesn't happen in the future.
I was part of upper management for the largest Funeral and Cemetery company in the country and this is going to be one hell of a payday for these families. When I say payday?? I mean millions of dollars. This isn't the only time it has happened and my comment above comes from knowledge of this happening at other crematories. This is a good example of why you should choose the funeral home that is actually doing the cremation, not some cheap ma and pa shop that does the paperwork, then uses a 3rd party transport company (which is extremely common), to take your loved one to some other building, then cremate the body, then send it back somewhere else, etc etc. It is worth spending the extra hundred bucks and simply do it where the work is done. Shouldn't have to worry about this, but humans are humans and carelessness or mistakes WILL happen.
When all said and done, this is the fault of the crematory. It is THEIR job to ensure they are putting the right person in the fire. "We are instituting new measures....." blah blah blah. Trust me, they already have massive measures in place but obviously multiple people, skipped them. Which will now cost them some serious loot.
Actually, there should be no reason for any nurse to be involved other than to be present when the bodies are taken, and then, only a technician need be there. The ID band on the wrist should serve to indicate who is who and it is typical of the offending company to try and blame someone else for their error. It's time for those who are the mistake makers to admit their wrongdoing and to stop blaming others'.
Millions of dollars??? Why? I don't understand that. This is going to sound terrible, but they are deceased...why in the world would the family get millions of dollars?
they are getting millions of dollars?!? whats wrong with this country?!?
typical of black people.
JmB66-One family wanted their loved one buried,they also were going to have a viewing,so they could see him one last time.Instead the man's body is ashes now.There will be no last goodbyes for the man's wife,children,friends and family.They were screwed out of that.Also, I know I am completely against being cremated when I pass,no telling how the man or family feel about it.
I think for the man that was supposed to be cremated,it probably isn't AS bad.The man can still be cremated.But I'm sure it doesn't make the family feel any better about the mishandling of their loved one.
Death,funerals,cremations,are only one per person.There is no do-over.Imagine how you would feel if that were your loved ones.You would be pretty pissed I'm sure.Dealing with the loss of a loved one is hard enough without adding something like this to it.
Yes, I would be mad, but my anger would not be worth millions of dollars. It would add to the heartbreak and stress, but still not by millions of dollars.
I do not care how many times they could apologize for this "mix up". Completely unacceptable! I would be livid if it was a family member of close friend of mine that they did this too. We always wake our late relatives, its a huge part of the grieving process. This company should feel shame.
I hate to break it to you, but once you've died, the remains of your body is no longer you. YOU don't exist anymore. This morbid fascination many of us still have regarding our physical bodies stems from the primitive beginnings of our species when we were completely ignorant of just about everything.
So please get over it. That body that you obsess over isn't a human being anymore. The person you loved is gone, and how his or her physical remains are disposed of is completely meaningless, because what was precious about them is gone.
Focusing on their remains is simply a futile attempt to prolong their existence. BUT IT NEVER WORKS. Better to start accepting reality and moving on with life.
When family want a viewing(which helps with "closure" for most) they should have that . Cremation in this case, took that away from the one family.It's totally WRONG!
i agree with scotty. i couldent care less what happens to me after i die.
and blake, you disgust me. you sound like my grandmother.
i think everyone should be put in mass graves. it will save millions of dollars and mass amounts of land.
Got a feeling they are going to feel more than shame before all is said and done.
"Both transport contractors blamed The Denver Hospice."
Yeah, well, the person who stuck the wrong ID bracelet right next to the correct one should also be held accountable, as should the people who picked up the other body later on. Both of the men had identification in place. It doesn't even take 2 seconds to read someone's name, and the amount of grief that could have been spared would certainly have been worth that amount of effort.
The funeral industry is such a scam.
TWMLLR,
Correct. Just legalized Robbery ....
I agree whole heartedly. My brother-in-law recently died and the funeral home really snowballed my mother-in-law. pushing a marble/stone urn (they are not of the same faith as I) with gold engraving. Then to top it off they also pushed cremation jewlery. For those not familer its a hollow pendant that holds a small portion of ashes. They inflated the price of the pendants. I found the pendants online for $10-$40 they sold them starting at $110. Oh also Memorial DVD's which was a slideshow of provided pics and music at the low low cost of $29.99. Come on what a way to exploit a familys grief.
Hey, America is so obsessed with death, that it is a perfect way to capitalize on the industry!
Yeah, I love when people play the blame game. EVERYONE involved here shares the blame to some extent, but none of them other than the hospice had the balls to admit they effed up! Jackwagons!
Human error = Human stupidity.
Oh I see a law suit coming. Money always makes people feel better.
It was an honest mistake. The families should just suck it up. Right?
Sounds more like incompetence to me, not a mistake. I was taught, if you can't do it right, don't do it at all. It is not an honest mistake to confuse a white man and a black man. I could see it maybe happening if they were both of the same race. If it happened to my family member, I certainly would not just suck it up. People need to learn to do their jobs right or give them to someone who can.
It maybe just a mistake. But I can understand why the family would be up set, I'm from a branch of baptists that look down on cremation. So what if the family were of the same belief?
If you were from a religon that was against cremation wouldn't you be livid?
@ lacywild I dont think it matters whether the men were not of the same race. Even if both of the men were white, that wouldn't make it more acceptable! what is the likelyhood that two people die at the same place and around the same time and look similar enough to be confused....slim as hell. Even if they were both white, they each would've had distinguishing factors. besides, the white man could've been very tan and the black man could've been very light...they might've been closer in complexion than you think...but that has nothing to do with people being incompetant. These families shouldn't have to pay for any of their services and their therapist fees should be paid by the companies involved!
MrsThundershield - so am I. However, I also understand that once a person is dead, they are dead. They don't care, and it really doesn't affect them in the afterlife. Sometimes I think religion actually gets in the way of faith.
wow ! the money they saved on the outsource company can now pay the settlement .
Well, if they went ahead and cremated the second guy they can say they got it half right??? Bet that's how the bosses of the companies think. One family got what they wanted and the other have my condolences. Unfortunately work like this is becoming the norm. Just get through the day, get the check, go home, see ya tomorrow.
Yea, but it is the half wrong that counts.
Outsourcing should be banned. All people involved in this fiasco should be fired. Can't be that hard to tell a white man from a black man. Surely their races were notated on the paperwork. My sympathy to these families.
There's no reason outsourcing should be banned. These companies aren't used to just pick up a body and move it. These are the companies that pick up a body of someone that just blew their brains all over a wall and need to be moved. You don't find people that can do this kind of work everyday. If the Funeral Home can't find someone to do this job, then they go out of business. The carrier companies have a stack of peole who do this. Yes the carrier company made reckless mistakes here too but the blame is that of the crematory who didn't do their proper inurnment checks
I agree with you Kayner. Many funeral homes outsource livery services. The facts do point to the Hospice for directing the drivers to the wrong bodies. It's simple, you walk into the front desk and identify yourself, you tell them who you are there to pick up. Then you are directed to either the morgue or the patients room where someone says, "here he is". You then remove the body in a body bag. Someone from administration is on hand for you to sign paperwork that they provide.
But here is where it becomes the fault of the crematory or funeral home. A signed death certificate from a physician and authorization from the coroners office is necessary to begin the cremation. This would not be approved until after 24 hours after the time of death. After these documents are received the body is assigned a number and the paper work is filed and or sent to the respective source. From the crematory's point of view the body then becomes a number not a name.
But by then it is amazing that the funeral mortuary service embalming the other deceased person has not reviewed their death certificate and discovered the black person they are about to embalm is not the Caucasian person identified on the certificate. This would not stop the cremation though because the crematory would more than likely have gone ahead the minute they received the coroners authorization. This is because when a body is not embalmed prior to cremation it will be zipped up in a disposable body bag that is not transparent. A body must be placed in a cold environment or embalmed within 24 hours. Likewise if it is not embalmed and then cremated it is never seen again unless a family member request to see it.
I am speaking from first hand experience, although I would have been much more upset to give a family the wrong remains and them never knowing as opposed to them at least knowing and being able to recover their loved ones remains. Imagine if someone scattered your mom somewhere and you had a closed casket for her burial then found out about the mix up. Or the other deceased was homeless and unclaimed and got dispersed in a communal grave that the State will not disclose.
I'm confused, lacy - why would race necessarily be listed on the paperwork to pick up a body?
Honestly, race has nothing to do with this story, and I find it kind of sad that it's a part of the big, bold headline. Two bodies were mixed up due to a series of human errors, and two grieving families were put through even more grief.
Race is irrelevant there is no excuse for it period, I worked in the funeral industry for many years on the cemetery side and while I took every precaution to make sure that we treated people with care and respect it was obvious to me that where the corporation was concerned money was the bottom line, one corporation in paticular likes to push the label "Dignity" but consistantly comes up short.
stupadasso- Your old school so you know this would never of happened back in the family owned funeral home days. These corporate funeral home pirates are destroying what used to be a thoughtful family taking care of another family type buisness. Sure there have always been ambulance chasers and rip of artists but they where the first ones to sell out. I'm sure you dealt with good people in the business on your end at one time.
Tiger- I am sure that Kayner and myself probably worked for the same corp. that starts with an S and ends with an I and while you are correct that I did work with some very good people and came to know some very nice families it is sad that the multi-billion dollar industry takes advantage of people when they are at their most vunerable, Kayner is correct in that ultimatly it is the fault of the crematory and there are many policies in place that should prevent this type of thing.
lacywild, why do you keep bringing race into it? Do you think it was a conspiracy to burn a black man?? It was a mistake made by negligent people, but I can't imgaine why you keep making it about race.
People get too wrapped up with "remains". That family member or friend, no longer lives there. They have shed that earthly bind and moved on, and so should you.
When you die, you wouldn't mind if we just dumped your carcass in the nearest landfill then?
Well, me personally, I would prefer my remains to be treated with dignity in accordance to my last wishes and beliefs.
Nope, not in the slightest Bro, not in the slightest. I am only using that shell temporarily. How about we just treat people with dignity while they are alive and can enjoy it.
Steve you need to leave advance directive's now, not next month, that you would like your body thrown in a ditch. Try this on for size some religions don't allow for cremation while other's do. Can you understand that or is it too difficult for you?
Allison--Just for curiosity sake. What religions disallow cremation. Not frown on it but disallow it. I am not trolling for an argument, I am actually curious to know. Especially in the USA where all religions are represented but some are in the rarest of minority.
Hey Allison, you are helping me prove my point. Also, how about cutting back on your condescension, its an unattractive trait.
In forty years, the funeral home that I used to work for has never helped a family of Jewish, Islamic or Russian orthodox decent. Fact! People with these religious beliefs will only seek help from a Funeral provider within their community who totally understands the their faiths belief in the afterlife.
Steve..gave you a bump. What one believes is what's important to them but your belief is just as valid.
Tiger, I'm a Catholic and unless the Church has changed recently the church prefer's burial and Hindu's prefer cremation Fact.
Steve 2057180, it's not condescension your hearing, it's more along the line of being tired of American's feeling that they know everything, when indeed they don't, simply because most think that they don't need to read and/or travel and learn about other's outside of the boundaries' of the US. Most can't find their way around a map.
Yes the catholic church has changed it's stance on cremation. It is totally allowed although considered by some to be not as christian like as burial internment. In 1997 the Vatican granted permission to U.S. bishops to allow funeral Masses in the presence of cremated remains. If the Hindu man was embalmed he would still be able to be cremated. I've worked at a funeral home and managed a crematory for several years.
Also; I wasn't throwing the "FACT" word in there to slam you, I was stating that it is a fact that the mentioned faiths use their own community services. You should not debate with people that have a different opinion than yourself. Your not good at it!
those families should do what any other american would do...sue
Opps
These men should have spoken up...
Rick, don't be ridiculous. You know they pack your mouth full of cotton when you die.
Hey Sirlafalot,
Are a white guys ashes "white" and a black guys ashes "black" Chk that out for me and get back asap..
thanks/dano
dano: ?? what?
Book em Dano. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. All I saw were ashes. And a little bit of rust. If you use them for chocolate milk mix, I wonder if one is a darker flavor, and one more of a milky palette?
Something tells me that these two men could care less. It is a body, hell when I go as far as I care they can place me in an industrial trash bag and throw me in a ditch. I find it morbid to lay a dead body for days just so people can view it. They can't pay respects to the dead they are there to console the family who lost the member and it don't take a body to do that. I have been to wakes, but yet have I walked up and looked at the dead person to see if they are really dead. Funerals are no more than a money scam.
Actually, in some religions you are not supposed to be cremated. If the person/their family was deeply religious this could be a major offense.
"MOST WANTED" Fugitive Captured!!!
...for having wine in his fridge
Jesus Christ, what a screwed up world we live in... take me now God.. Please :(
Even more screwed up is the fact that you seem to have posted this in the comments section of the wrong news story. The captured fugitive story is found elsewhere.
Bucky G
bahahahahahaha thanks for that.
This type of mistake could get a man fired!
Who cares if one body was black and the other white. Its not like the guy making the mistakes knows the people he just seems a name and does his job.
Way to spin the race card for link clicks.
Cow, you've just made the point---everyone, includiing the pick up ARE supposed to check starting at the nurse's station. How do you pass over the funeral home putting THEIR name band on a wrist with a name band of someone else? They obviously didn't check the names!
I've worked in nursing homes, medical rehabs and hospitals, EVERYONE is supposed to check NAME BANDS!!
It doesn't matter for mother earth she will take back everybody sooner or later.
Yikes. What do you say in a situation like this? "Oops, my bad, I'm so sorry I accidentally cremated your loved one"? Cremation isn't exactly something you can take back ... and I hope the family isn't too offended by it. *facepalm*
I'm sure someone noticed the wrong color but they were afraid of being called racist or politically incorrect for racially profiling a dead body.
Your are indeed stupid aren't you? And some wonder what's wrong with this country? Your it dummy.
"Both transport contractors blamed The Denver Hospice"
So I take it neither of the transport contractors can read ID tags? Lol, trying to pass the blame of course...
None of the relatives/friends of the person scheduled to be cremated were there after he was brought to the crematorium? Hospice did have the right name tags on the bodies. Looks like these 'third party' resources would even drag a live person from the hospital bed, if they were 'directed' by a hospice staff in that direction!
Slow news day MSN ????????????????????????
Their dead, their souls have moved on, the empty caucus isn't going to know the difference. It's an unfortunate mistake, learn from it and move on, dwelling on it just makes it more painful.