A DISTRAUGHT mother signed papers for the cremation of her baby daughter while sedated and vulnerable.
Cheryl Buchanan, 35, from Barlanark, says she was "handed a bundle of papers" by nurses at Glasgow's Princes Royal Maternity Hospital but was not aware what she was agreeing to.
Her baby was stillborn on June 13 2004, at 23 weeks, two days after doctors performed a late termination on medical grounds.
Grieving Cheryl says she was never given her preferred option of a burial service for her "much wanted" daughter, named Taylor.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been forced to apologise for "serious failings" after an investigation found staff had not followed the correct procedures for stillbirth and funeral arrangments.
Jim Martin, Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, said he was "extremely concerned," that Mrs Buchanan had not been given the option of a burial and that staff had failed to explain what the forms were.
The investigation was especially critical that she had been asked to sign cremation forms when she was sedated and prior to the delivery, although investigators said that she had been offered "good" support by staff.
Cheryl told how she had waited weeks before agreeing to the termination, after doctors said her baby had serious health problems and would die soon after birth.
She said: "I was taken in and the doctors inserted a needle into my stomach to stop the baby's heartbeat.
"I was later taken into a room and handed a bundle of papers.
"I don't remember anything after that. They give you drugs for the procedure and also to calm you down.
"It's a horrendous thing to go through.
"I only found out a year and half ago that I had agreed to a cremation in those papers. A doctor later told me that I should have been offered a burial."
Cheryl's case was part of the investigation into the baby ashes scandal, where ashes were dispersed against the wishes of parents.
Glasgow City Council has apologised to families.
Cheryle said: "I have nothing of her. I wasn't told that there would be no ashes. I don't want any other family to go through this."
A spokeswoman for NHSGGC said: "As with any death there is paperwork to be completed and in every case there is no right time to discuss this with families who are grieving.
"Our staff deal with parents who have undergone a traumatic loss with the utmost respect and sensitivity and, in the case of an early stage foetus, the mother is asked about her preference - either through a funeral director for cremation or through the hospital's own mortuary.
"If a foetus is at a later stage of development we arrange for funeral directors to carry out either a cremation or burial according to the wishes of the family.
"We will write to the patient offering our apologies."
caroline.wilson@eveningtimes.co.uk
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