Parents Sue Brigham And Women's Hospital For Losing Baby's Remains

BOSTON — Parents from Sharon were already devastated over the loss of their premature baby Everleigh, but were even more grief-stricken to learn her remains could not be found.

According to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Suffolk Superior Court, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston had lost Everleigh's body and accidentally discarded it with dirty linens in August 2020.

Everleigh's parents, Alana Ross and Daniel McCarthy, of Sharon, are suing the hospital and its parent company, Mass General Bridgham, for breach of contract when it came to the safeguard of their daughter's body. They are also suing 14 hospital employees for negligence, emotional distress, and tortious interference with human remains.

The parents are demanding a jury trial but did not request a specific amount of money for damages.

Everleigh had been born three months premature on July 25, 2020, weighing only 2 pounds, 5 ounces, but still survived 12 days with her parents, court documents show.

Boston police say they were never able to locate Everleigh's body, despite lengthy searches through medical waste sites.

Court documents highlight video surveillance and interviews with police that brought officials to the conclusion that a nurse had placed the baby's remains on a stainless steel rack meant for adult bodies instead of one meant for children.

Detective Kevin Cook wrote a 16-page report stating the infant was "probably mistaken as soiled linens [by a pathologist] and placed in the blue soiled linen bag inside the morgue examination room."

"We continue to express our deepest sympathies and most sincere apologies to the Ross and McCarthy family for their loss and the heartbreaking circumstances surrounding it," The Boston Globe reported Dr. Sunil Eappen, chief medical officer at Brigham and Women's Hospital, saying in a statement.

For more on this, read the Boston Globe.