Baby hearts case faces lengthy delay

Parents suing the Attorney-General and Green Lane Hospital for keeping their babies' hearts without their consent will probably have to wait until next year for the complex case to proceed.  

Today's preliminary hearing in the High Court at Wellington to discuss procedures for the case, was adjourned until August 3.  

Wellington lawyer John Miller, representing the 83 families for the $7.47 million lawsuit, said if the case did go to trial, he was looking at next year for court time.  

"It's the first case of its kind and it's immensely complicated. It will take a while," he said.  

He expected to be ready to proceed by August, but he said the Crown's readiness depended on how "hard-nosed" it wanted to be.


"The Crown may ask for more time, it may want psychiatrists' reports, that sort of thing." 

For the court to hear the stories of 83 families would take years, so Mr Miller plans to put up five representatives of the different subgroups.  

These include those who had been asked if the organs could be retained and had refused, those told there would be an autopsy rather than being asked for their consent, and those where a coroner was involved.  

It was revealed three years ago that the Auckland hospital had a collection of more than 1300 hearts dating back more than 50 years. They were mainly from children and babies and many were taken without permission. 

Other organs were also retained. The Crown is expected to claim that two of the cases could not proceed because they fell outside the Limitation Act.  

One of those cases is that of Wellington woman Dawn Bailey who instigated the lawsuit.  

Ms Bailey's daughter Ashleigh was born 13 years ago with heart defects and lived just a few weeks. It was not until years later that Ms Bailey discovered the hospital had kept Ashleigh's heart without permission.  

Mr Miller said there was much preparatory work to be done over the next three months.  

"There's no clear area of law for this case. Among those areas we are examining include the Human Tissue Act, Property Law, the Bill of Rights."  

- NZPA