It's a mother's worst nightmare - 21 year old Nahomy Guerrero was 34 weeks pregnant when she noticed a spot of blood last Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, the bleeding continued, so she went to the hospital, only to be told that since she didn't come the night before, it was not considered an emergency, and she would have to pay for an ultrasound.
After paying and waiting for about 2 hours, Guerrero finally got the ultrasound, and later in the evening, she was told she had a placenta hematoma, and that she would have to undergo a C-section the next day.
And on Friday morning, baby Aaron Allen was born and immediately placed into the NICU. A little more than a day later, while fighting to survive, he lost the battle.
Guerrero was devastated, but just when she thought the situation couldn't get worse, she went to the morgue today only to find out that her baby boy - whom she planned to bury - was given to the wrong funeral home, and that he had already been cremated!
As it turns out, there was another baby boy in the morgue named Aaron who was scheduled for a cremation. And somehow, the boys were mixed up, and another family got the Allen baby.
This evening, Guerrero - who is still recovering from the surgery - spoke to us about the trauma she had just endured.
Nahomy Guerrero, Mother of Deceased
"My common law was at the cemetery doing the tomb, he was finishing up the tomb and when he was at the tomb at about 11:20 this morning, Jenkins Funeral Home called him to let him know that they came to dress the baby and put him in the coffin, but the baby wasn't here, that another funeral home had already came and pick up that body. That body wasn't here. So that's when I came personally to KHMH morgue to come and find out more information about what had happened, where is my baby and what they did with him. Is it possible to confuse a baby with a tag on it? Like he has a name. How will they lose him? How will they give another funeral home a baby that wasn't supposed to cremate?"
"I was waiting outside about an hour, didn't get any information about my baby. When they finally came to us, they came to tell us that they are sorry, but they had mistakenly given my baby to Coye's Funeral Home to cremate. And at that moment my world just fell apart, because my baby didn't deserve that. I never wanted that. At no moment had I given them permission to do that. How will they confuse my baby and just cremate him? and they don't want to be responsible or accept that they did wrong. They came and blame us, because the first question was before they even tell us that the baby was mistakenly given to Coye's - the question was how many funeral homes did we give the death certificate? and we told them right away only Jenkin's. We didn't deal with no other funeral home, only Jenkin's and Jenkin's informed us that when they came to dress the baby, the baby wasn't here and they had already cremated the baby and now I am just asking for justice."
"Why are they so negligent and do what they want. That is not fair. I had a C-Section and I am in pain physically, emotionally for them to come and give me more pain like that. It's not fair. My baby didn't deserve that. At no moment did we ask for that."
"I am going to sue the hospital for this, because it's not fair. I don't deserve this."
Reporter
"Do you feel like maybe your baby could have survived if you had gotten medical attention sooner?"
Nahomy Guerrero, Mother of Deceased
"Yes, that's one possibility I was going through my head over and over, why they didn't tend to me right away. I came with bleeding. I am a pregnant woman. Why they didn't see me right away?"
And activist and spokesperson for the family, Jose Espat, says he believes the mix up was caused by the hospital - and that the family is yet to get so much as an apology.
Jose Espat, Activist/ Spokeperson
"KHMH clerk is claiming that they have one which was brought in when the body of the baby was given. The family ask to see if they cannot produce it, because there is none. The family has in their possession the original and the 3 remaining copies of those death certificates. I'm telling you from someone who use to work there, no one can come to this morgue and walk out with a body without a death certificate being presented and that being processed by the clerk and it's not the family member or the funeral home owner representatives who come and get the baby or the body. It's handed over to them and this must be verified."
"So the mistake happened internally where a body of a baby was given to the wrong funeral home without a due death certificate."
"What about the other family that received a wrong body of their infant as well? because this is a phycological trauma additional to the physical trauma that mothers go through to give birth, especially during C-Section which is invasive. It's a lot of physical pain and then emotional pain on top of that. The worst part is the institution is trying to blame everyone instead of taking that responsibility."
And Guerrero still has a dozen questions as to how this mix up happened, especially since her name was placed on her baby's body.
In a statement to the press, the CEO of KHMH, Chandra Cansino said, quote, "The KHMHA is deeply concerned with a situation that transpired this afternoon at our morgue. We are taking this very seriously and are currently investigating the incident with the intent to take any necessary remedial action." End quote.
But while the hospital isn't admitting fault just yet, according to Espat, a representative from Coye's Funeral Home - which was used by the second family - has denied claims that they gave the hospital the Allen baby death certificate, since they had no contact with that family.
Guerrero and her common-law husband have already retained a lawyer.
