Manitoba to investigate after family receives and buries the body of wrong person

Manitoba’s provincial health authority is examining what went wrong after a family received — and buried — the remains of what was supposed to be their loved one only to later find out it was the wrong person.

Shared Health says it takes full responsibility for the error and is investigating not only what caused it but also what steps are needed to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Lanette Siragusa, head of Shared Health, says the body was released to the family at the end of July, but a subsequent check alerted officials to the mistake.

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She called the error tragic and extremely painful for the families and apologized to both involved.

Siragusa says the province is supporting the family and will pay to exhume the wrongly identified remains.

She says the investigation has already revealed two more similar occurrences within recent weeks, but said staff caught the errors before the bodies were turned over to the families.

0:42 Hundreds of Manitoba health records accessed in breach by former HSC staffer: Shared Health