Dead Newborn found in Laundry

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April 7th, 2006

"Hospital Sued After Dead Newborn found in Laundry"

A woman filed a negligence lawsuit against a hospital after her premature baby’s body was found mixed in with the laundry.

The baby, Isabella Rosa Pickney died minutes after she was born. “I did get to hold her, I got to feel her breath on my lips,” her mother, Verna Uptigrow, said at a press conference announcing the lawsuit. “I told her I loved her, I told her happy birthday, and then they took her…”

A few days after Uptigrow arrived home from the South Nassau Communities Hospital, she was informed that her baby’s body had been mixed up in the hospital’s dirty laundry.

Police investigators said the body was found at Oceanside Linen Services. They believe hospital staff didn’t see the infant’s body lying beneath the laundry in a refrigerated locker.

The negligence lawsuit filed Monday, alleges the hospital and its “employees were willful and wanton, as well as reckless, careless, and negligent in that it failed and omitted to apprehend and comprehend the degree of care necessary in handling the deceased infant,”

Uptigrow seeks unspecified monetary damages for her pain and agony. She says she’s suffered from nightmares and depression since the death of her baby.

Her attorney Dan Flanzig, said his client wanted to file the suit partly to determine the hospital’s procedures when disposing of corpses. The lawsuit also seeks to prevent other mothers from going through Uptigrow’s suffering.

“This is insult to injury,” Uptigrow said. “Because of the way they treated her. Nobody should have to go through this hurt.”