Minneapolis couple allege Fairview sent placenta, not stillborn baby’s remains, to funeral home

A Minneapolis couple is suing Fairview Health Services after receiving the cremated placenta from their stillborn daughter’s birth this spring instead of their daughter’s remains.

Joselyn Ruelas Pena and Luis Resendiz Hernandez said in their lawsuit that a Fairview official called them about the mix-up, one month after the cremated placenta had been placed in an urn that they had taken home.

They sued Fairview as the operator of Ridges Hospital in Burnsville, where the May 4 stillbirth took place. Also named were two funeral homes that failed to discover the mix-up before cremating the placenta instead of their daughter, whom they named Keilani.

“The urn that they had at home, the urn they cried to, the urn that they prayed to, it was not Baby Keilani,” the lawsuit stated.

Fairview apologized in a phone call and in writing to the couple. In a written statement, the Minneapolis-based health system said that “the respectful and compassionate handling of all remains is of utmost importance to our organization.”

“We have thoroughly investigated the situation,” the statement added, “and can confirm that the fetal remains were not lost or mistreated at any point and are still in our care awaiting the family’s direction.”

The lawsuit alleges that the mix-up occurred because the delivery team at Ridges wrapped the body and placenta in towels and placed them in identical containers.

Fairview argued in its lawsuit response that both were sent with Ruelas’ permission to an M Health Fairview pathology lab in Minneapolis for examination. The placenta was then placed in the wrong container and sent to the Metro First Call Crematory funeral home, where it wasn’t visually inspected prior to cremation.

A monthly inventory check discovered that the lab was still in possession of the body. The Minneapolis-based health system said in a statement that it is retraining staff on the process of handling fetal remains and switching to weekly checks on remains in its possession rather than monthly.

The lawsuit alleges that Fairview took weeks to notify the couple, and only after alerting the funeral homes first.

“It shouldn’t take days or weeks, it should be in minutes,” said Lee Hutton, the couple’s attorney.

The couple are spiritual and have been trying to start a family for years, Hutton said.

Ruelas, 27, had two prior unsuccessful pregnancies but was confident enough to name her baby as she approached her third trimester. She went to the hospital after a May 1 routine checkup when her clinicians couldn’t detect a fetal heartbeat. Keilani was born at 22 weeks gestation, when a typical fetus is about the size of a sweet potato.

The mishandling of Keilani’s remains has compounded the couple’s grief and delayed memorial plans, Hutton said.

“Whether a person is in life or in death, there’s an amount of respect that needs to be given,” he said.

Fairview notified the couple on July 1 that genetic tests positively linked Ruelas and the fetal remains in its pathology lab. Hutton said the couple remain suspicious, though, because they weren’t provided the actual test results.

They are considering having their own genetic testing done before requesting to receive the remains and restarting plans for a funeral ceremony, he said.

The couple also is suing Metro First and Henry W. Anderson Mortuary Funeral and Cremation Services, which were under contract to provide cremation and funeral planning. They accused the providers of falling short of state requirements to verify remains before cremating them.

Hospitals nationwide have taken steps to prevent the loss or mix-up of tissue samples and biological specimens, including bar-coding systems and tamperproof packaging.

Minnesota hospitals as a measure of accountability are required to report when they lose irreplaceable specimens, such as biopsied tissue samples that are used to diagnose cancer. The state reported 48 such instances in the 12-month reporting period ending last October, including one that led to a serious injury and another two that required corrective treatment.

Mix-ups involving fetal remains or deceased bodies are rare, but media reports and lawsuits show instances across the U.S. A Springfield, Mo., couple sued this year, alleging that they received fetal remains, but were later informed that they were not of the baby they lost at 12 weeks gestation.

A coroner in central Illinois is investigating whether careless recordkeeping at a local funeral home resulted in 75 or more families receiving the wrong cremated remains. The coroner in an affidavit said it is possible that hundreds more families received incorrect remains from the home, according to a media report.

Ruelas took time off to grieve but returned to work at a fishing company because household income was tight. Resendiz, 30, works as a glass cutter in Bloomington. The couple declined to be interviewed but said in a statement they are still “seeking answers” and hoping their lawsuit will make a broader impact.

“We pray that no other family has to ever experience our pain,” they wrote.