Hospital Accidentally Cremates Couple's Baby: 'We Trusted Them'

A young couple is absolutely devastated after a major hospital accidentally sent their stillborn daughter to be cremated.

Anthony Meyers and Stella Pirko, from Padstow, are desperately looking for answers following this traumatic incident.

Doctors were forced to induce labor for Pirko 28 weeks into her pregnancy, after her daughter, who was to be named Krystal Rose, was shown to have an enlarged bladder.

Unfortunately, the baby's life could not be saved.

Before burying their stillborn child, Meyers and Pirko were hoping to have their daughter undergo a post-mortem for genetic testing to see what may have caused her fatal condition, and if it may happen again with a later pregnancy.

However, after leaving Krystal Rose in the morgue for nine days, Liverpool Hospital wrongly sent the baby to a funeral home for cremation.

Pirko told Nine News,

I came home, I was suffering. I was a mother without a baby and it was so hard.

In late 2015, Krystal Rose was apparently confused with another deceased baby at Liverpool Hospital, which led to the heartbreaking mix-up.

Pirko said,

We trusted them to do their jobs — to find out what happened to our baby. We cannot fathom how this happened,

The couple originally intended to bury the child after the autopsy was done, though they never got the chance.

Pirko and Meyers were referred to Liverpool Hospital after the bladder problem was detected about halfway through the pregnancy. They had no choice but to terminate given the circumstances.

The couple then authorized the hospital to carry out an autopsy and genetic testing on their baby. However, their request was never followed through after the paperwork went missing, and a lack of funding left no one responsible for the hospital mortuary.

It was several weeks before the couple discovered what actually happened to their daughter. They were led to believe an autopsy report was underway, and they would soon be called in to discuss the findings when they were ready.

Robynne Cook, general manager of Liverpool Hospital, expressed her deepest condolences to Pirko and Meyers:

I am so sorry that we let them down.

Citations: How was baby accidentally cremated? (News.com.au), Sydney couple devastated after stillborn daughter mistakenly cremated (Nine News)