Rimma Avany not only suffered because her daughter was born dead, but also buried the remains of another baby due to an assumption hospital error from the Upper East Side (NYC), according to the court documents of the lawsuit he has filed.
Avany says she only learned months after the burial that Lenox Hill Hospital had given her the remains of another child, and she was so devastated that she had to seek medical treatment. “Suffered an emotional breakdown due to the negligence of the defendants ”, states the lawsuit, recently filed with the Manhattan Supreme Court, seeking compensation for an unspecified amount.
The aggravated trauma for Avany began on August 16, 2018, when her baby, who was a twin, was stillborn in that center of fancy neighborhood Lenox Hill de Manhattan.
Five days later, he made a closed coffin burial for the baby, whose name was Sophia, at the cementerio Moravian and Staten Island. But then, on December 5 of that year, the director of the obstetrics department surprised her when she called her asking for “instructions for the remains of the stillborn twin.”
Following the surprise, Avany was forced to endure a second burial on December 11 for “the royal remains” of her daughter. The lawsuit does not say who owned the body he had first buried in the summer.
He is now suing the hospital, his parent company Northwell Health Inc. and the funeral home Brooklyn Coney Island Memorial Chapel for unspecified damages.
Margarita Oksenkrug, a spokeswoman for the hospital, told the New York Post by email that he could not comment on pending litigation. “Northwell Health and Lenox Hill Hospital express our condolences to the Avany family on the loss of their son,” the statement continued. “We give the highest value to patient safety and care”. The mother and the defendant funeral home have not made any statements to the press.
In a similar case, a Brooklyn couple sued the Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center last November for $ 10 million, claiming that the city-run hospital had lost the remains of her stillborn son. That litigation is still pending.
In August 2018, the Lake Ronkonkoma Moloney Funeral Home on Long Island allegedly handed over the ashes of a father to the wrong family, who then traveled thousands of miles to scatter his remains, a Nassau Supreme Court lawsuit alleged. That case is also pending trial.
More recently, during the coronavirus crisis, there were several complaints and lawsuits about improper handling of corpses in the city. It has also been commented that apparently there are still many bodies without being buried, since last year.
Mom sues NYC hospital for mixup over stillborn child’s remains https://t.co/gUAyMZ21Po pic.twitter.com/R7dntPDyHY
— New York Post Metro (@nypmetro) June 15, 2021
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