Parents' anger over East Surrey Hospital mortuary delay
The parents of a teenager whose body lay in a hospital mortuary for nearly two weeks have spoken of their anger.
Georgina Weaver, 19, died at East Surrey Hospital in August after suffering from severe headaches and blurred vision.
Her parents say that hospital blunders left them unable to grieve properly.
East Surrey Hospital said that the delay in the mortuary was unacceptable, and that the staff involved no longer work there.
Angie and Laurence Weaver, who live in Warlingham, said their daughter first started having headaches in October 2012.
She was taken to hospital where it was found she had swelling on the brain and her brain was sagging out of her skull.
She was readmitted to hospital for a final time in August, Mrs Weaver said.
"The day she passed away, 28 August, they asked me if I wanted a post-mortem and I said yes.
"We were told it would be done on Monday or Tuesday at the latest after we donated all her organs on the Friday.
"We heard nothing. We kept ringing the hospital, they weren't getting back to us at all, we wanted to hold the funeral and everything but no, we had no joy with them."
She said they finally had a phone call saying they needed to collect a form so she could get the death certificate and found that Georgina's body was still in the mortuary.
They finally got the results of the post-mortem examination six months after Georgina's death, Mrs Weaver said.
Mr and Mrs Weaver said the delay meant that valuable research which could have helped other people with the same condition could not be undertaken.
"I haven't really grieved - I've set that aside because I'm so angry at what's happened, how this could have happened," Mrs Weaver said.