SALINAS, Calif.- A couple is suing Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital after they say the hospital gave them the wrong baby to bury. The lawsuit tells the story of the nightmare that Ahmed Musa and his wife Hana Mohammed Dharhan say they have endured.
The lawsuit says "On September 3, 2010 (the day after the stillbirth) SVMH released what was supposed to have been baby Musa's body to Ahmed and Hana for burial." The lawsuit continues to explain how the couple quickly prepared the body and buried it according to their Islamic faith.
According to the Carmel Pine Cone, on October 8, 2010 a member of the Hospital staff called Ahmed Musa and said someone had found the body of a baby in the morgue with his wife's name attached to it. "SVMH told them that there had been two stillbirths the same day and that the hospital was pretty sure that the bodies of the two babies had been mixed up," the suit says. The couple was asked to come to the hospital to do DNA testing so that the baby's identity could be confirmed.
When the test came back it confirmed that the couple had buried the wrong baby. To make things worse "the body of Baby Musa was beyond horrifying. It contained mold and had undergone decomposition," described the lawsuit.
This would be a catastrophic event for anyone but for someone who practices Islam it is unacceptable. In the Islamic faith the dead have to be buried as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours after the person died.
"What you can really do for the body is to bury it as quick as possible" said Maddie Griffith with the Islamic Center of Santa Cruz.
Central Coast News contacted the Musa's attorney to talk about the suit, "My clients are very private people, but any couple can relate to how it would feel to go through this," said attorney Anne Marie Murphy. There is no sum listed in the document for damages.
At this time the identity of the birth mother of the baby that was originally buried is unknown and Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital won't talk about the lawsuit. It also wouldn't talk about procedure when a still birth occurs. However, the lawsuit claims that the hospital violated the California Health and Safety Code by "holding a body pending disposition for more than eight calendar days after a death without a permit."
