On Sunday the 9th of August, my husband got a call from the medical examiner in Hastings telling him that his brother had died and that he had arrived from our home town for a autopsy. The news was devistating to our whole family and made much worse b y the fact that we never got a chance to view his body and was not notified by the hospital at all. We are wondering if we have a case against the hospital for taking that right away from us. The call came two hours after he died and by that time they had already transported him away. This part of our closure can never be given back.

Any advised would be helpful. After a week almost we finally received a call from the hospital administrator informing us that they now would be willing to have a team answer any questions we might have, and that the reason it took so long to contact us is that they had to be advised by their legal department as to check if they broke any federal laws. It seems as though they broke their own procedures and are now tryi ng to cover their tracks.

Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.

What was the cause of death and how long was he in the hospital?

Hospitals typically do whatever they can to find and notify next of kin, but hospitals don't have police powers or access to police tools. Unless they've got ID on the person AND an obvious link to a next of kin to notify (like being able to find someone with the same last name listed at the same address in the phonebook, or something on the victim or in the victim's possession that would point them to the correct persons to notify), there's little they can do to accomplish notification - as opposed to law enforcement agencies, where, for example, we have immediate access to driver license databases where people often register an emergency contact or where we have the ability to send an officer to try to make contact at the victim's listed residence (assuming their identification like a driver's license SHOWS the correct info, which often it doesn't). The medical examiner's office IS a type of law enforcement aency and they can get access to this info as part of their investigation, so they are frequently the agency making first contact (depending on the circumstances). Unless the situation involved him completing some paperwork on arrival that would point them to who to contact, hospital staff are pretty limited in ability and time to contact next of kin.

Other considerations surround the cause of death - there are many scenarios where speed in getting him to the M.E.'s office would be important for investigative or community health reasons.

If you can shed further light, we can evaluate more accurately.

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As for the first question, what was the cause of death; it was found by the medical examinor at autopsy the he had a slightly enlarged heart, hardening of the liver and had added distress from the detox of Oxycotton (persribed). He had been transferred to the hospital by ambulance treated for hypertension,; tachycardia with Clonidine 0.2 PO stat and Ativan 1mg IV. Then transfered to the CDC physically attached to the hospital.
He was admitted to the hospital at around 8 a.m. and died by 8 P.M. that same day.

The hospital and CDc had my husbands name and phone number as next of kin.