Auckland District Health Board has started an investigation after a Northland whanau buried their baby not knowing part of his heart was still at Auckland City Hospital.
Four-day-old Lazariah Mar died following two heart operations last month. His family assumed that his thymus, a small piece of heart
tissue, had been put back in place after surgeons removed it during one of his operations.
But nearly a month after he was buried at Waiomio in the Far North with his grandfather, his parents received a letter from Auckland City Hospital asking them to collect the rest of their baby's heart.
Lazariah's grandmother, Mere Ngakoti, said her son held the letter in shock before handing it to her.
"He asked me to deal with it because he was too upset."
The 43-year-old said hospital staff had done a marvellous job with her grandson but she believed there had been some kind of departmental communication breakdown leading to the botch-up.
Her family are now involved with the ADHB's investigation to ensure such incidents never occur again.
Maori Party MP Hone Harawira is calling for a review of the way Auckland City Hospital deals with body parts "so no other whanau has to go through what this whanau has".
But the latest incident follows another error two years ago when American backpacker Whitney Robie's heart went missing from LabPlus, Auckland City Hospital's pathology laboratory.
The 23-year-old's heart was couriered to the laboratory for tests but it was never found.
Mr Harawira said there was "no issue" about surgeons doing their work, but body parts removed during surgery should be returned to the body for burial.
"Saying they forgot or didn't have time to put all the remains back is just not good enough," he said.
Mr Harawira is also calling on the Minister of Health to find out how such an error could occur.
The Auckland board's operations general manager, Ngaire Buchanan, said Lazariah's thymus was returned to his family during a hui on Tuesday.
"We fully appreciate the significance of the whanau's concerns and have launched an investigation into the reasons why this has happened," she said.
Senior Anglican minister Dr Hone Kaa said the issue was sensitive for Maori because all body parts were considered tapu.
