The headline in today’s Albuquerque Journal blared “Funeral Home Sends Brain to Family.” The copyrighted story tells of a grandmother who died in a car accident in Utah, and somewhere between Utah’s medical examiner’s office and burial, her brain was separated from her body and put in a separate bag with the woman’s belongings.
Here’s the lead:
Members of a New Mexico family are suing an Espanola funeral home after they found their grandmother’s brain in the bag of personal effects given to them after her death.
The discovery was made the day after the interment, when relatives “smelled a foul odor coming from the bag” that had been left inside a family member’s truck overnight. The brain has since been buried with the woman’s body.
Richard Valle, the attorney for the family said, “No loved one’s brain should ever be part of those belongings.” A lawsuit has been filed against funeral homes in New Mexico and Utah, and a tort claim against the state of Utah and their Office of the Medical Examiner.