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Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Why were my son's organs taken, asks grieving father

Why were my son's organs taken, asks grieving father

A MAN whose son died on holiday in Cuba demanded yesterday to know why
his body was returned to the UK with organs missing.

Andrew Redfern, 37, died after slipping and hitting his face on a marble
floor in a hotel. A post-mortem examination in the UK revealed his
lungs, kidney and part of his brain were missing.

His father, Lawrence Redfern, 58, of Inverness, said: "If his organs
were taken for transplants I wouldn't have minded, but nobody mentioned
anything.

"Somebody just removed them without asking permission and no-one seems
to know why. Because of this, the post-mortem in the UK did not reveal
how he died. My family and I... want to make sure no other families have
to go through this."

Mr Redfern, an offshore oil worker, of Wirral, Merseyside, went to
Havana alone in August after splitting with his partner.

Mr Redfern, who has an 18-month-old daughter, slipped in the hotel lobby
on the final day of his holiday. He suffered an injury to his face,
which needed ten stitches. He had a seizure the next day and was taken
to hospital, where he died.

A Foreign Office spokesman said post-mortem examinations were mandatory
in Cuba for all non-residents and samples of organs and tissues may be
taken for pathology reports.

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1608252006

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