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Coroner Error Means Mother Kisses Goodbye To Teenage Son's Disintegrating Body

Coroner Error Means Mother Kisses Goodbye To Teenage Son's Disintegrating Body

The coroner has since apologised for the error.

James Dawson

James Dawson

A mother has hit out at a coroner after her dead teenage son's skin "disintegrated" as she kissed him goodbye because his body was only released nine days after his death

Joanne Hargreaves-Doherty, 46, said when she finally got to see her 16-year-old son James she had to immediately close the coffin lid as the body was in such a poor condition.

James, who hanged himself in woodland, died on Wednesday 10 August last year.

Credit: SWNS

A post-mortem examination was carried out two days later, and Joanne said she was told his body would be moved to the funeral home on Monday 15 August.

However, delays meant his body was actually moved four days later on the Friday 19 August.

Joanne said: "I gave him a kiss and his skin came away in my hands - it literally melted away from the side of his head.

"I was screaming my head off. That's my last memory of him - I will never forget it.

Credit: SWNS

"His fingers were black, head was swollen, and they admitted there and then it was too long.

"They said to me, it's too long when I was there - it's just not acceptable."

Lancashire Coroner's office has blamed the paperwork blunder which delayed the release of James' body on new computer software and a heavy workload.

Joanne said the funeral director was shut at the weekend, and said the next time she could visit her son was on the following 23 August.

Lancashire Coroner Dr James Adeley has apologised to Joanne in a letter which read: "Please accept my deepest condolences on the death of your son.

Credit: Facebook

"This is every parent's worst nightmare and please accept my unreserved apologies for having made matters worse at an extremely traumatic time.

"I appreciate entirely that I cannot turn the clocks back for you and make things better, but I can try to make sure that other families have a considerable better experience than you have had.

"To mitigate against such problems, my coroner's officers should check with the mortuaries each day as to what bodies are resident."

The letter continued: "This ensures that bodies are always accounted for and checked. Unfortunately, the staff member was working single-handedly as her colleague was on leave and her workload was very high.

"Because James was at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, where very few bodies under my control resides, the worker did not check with the Blackpool mortuary.

"Consequently, the lack of documentation release James was not spotted until later the next week."

This is awful, hopefully it doesn't happen to anyone else.

Featured Image Credit: SWNS

Topics: Death, Teenager, Dead

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