A HAMPSHIRE mother has spoken of her distress after finding that the remains of her child were still being held in a laboratory at Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton six months after she suffered a miscarriage.

Lisa Bertelsen, 33, from Millbrook, Southampton, was told that the 12-week-old foetus had been cremated, but when she was arranging a memorial service for her lost child she was contacted by the hospital to tell her that it still had the remains.

Under normal circumstances the foetus would have been kept in the pathology lab for no more than six weeks but due to a "breakdown in the normal procedures" it remained there months later.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Echo, Lisa, a mother-of-two, said: "We were going to have a blessing service without the body, and four days before that was due to go ahead, the hospital contacted me.

"They told me the baby was still in the path lab - I just couldn't believe it.

"I cried so much. I found it difficult to come to terms with losing my baby in the first place but then when I discovered the baby was still at the hospital, I just couldn't believe it."

It was on December 18, 2006, that Lisa had a scan which revealed that her baby was not growing at the usual rate.

She was 12 weeks pregnant but the foetus was only measuring the length of a seven-week-old baby.

"I was told I would need to be rescanned in January but later that night I started to haemorrhage at home.

"I was taken by ambulance to the hospital with my partner, Matthew.

"And I was told I was losing the baby," she said.

Instead of being treated with care and understanding by staff on the ward, Lisa claims that she was left distressed and disturbed by their attitude.

"One nurse asked me what I was crying for, as I was lucky I wasn't four months pregnant.

"At about midnight I said I would like a chaplain to visit me and I was told I couldn't have one.

"Just as I was being taken into the operating theatre, they asked me to sign consent forms so they could dispose of the body but I said no.

"And after I came out, I asked if there was another way of disposing of my baby's remains other than cremation and they said there was only one option.

"I asked if I could take the baby home and they told me it had been cremated.

"I was heartbroken because I had been given no options," she said.

In May, when she discovered that the foetus was still at the hospital, it was finally agreed that it would be buried and that Southampton General Hospital would pay for the plot.

"In May I still wasn't feeling very strong after the miscarriage and I thought I should have been feeling better by that time.

"I read a leaflet about miscarriage and it talked about having a blessing service to help you come to terms with the loss.

"It was only because I arranged the blessing that I ever found out about them still having my baby - otherwise I don't know how long they would have kept the baby," she said.

Chief executive Mark Hackett has written to Lisa to apologise unreservedly for the mix-up that led to the remains still being in the pathology lab.

"The procedure is that after an early miscarriage, the baby is transferred respectfully from Princess Anne Hospital to the pathology department at Southampton General Hospital.

"Tests are then carried out to confirm that this is, in fact, a pregnancy and the baby is taken down to the mortuary, where the funeral directors come and take the baby to Southampton Crematorium for respectful cremation. This whole process should take approximately six weeks.

"Unfortunately, however, we have discovered that, in your case, there was an administrative delay in the pathology department at that time. This regrettably resulted in your baby remaining in that department and not going down to the mortuary, as is the usual practice.

"I am so sorry that this has happened and on behalf of the trust, apologise unreservedly," he wrote.

He explained that there was a 24-hour on-call service for hospital chaplains and that Lisa should have been given the option of taking her baby home to make her own private arrangements.

"Whilst we can never undo what has happened, and can only apologise profusely for this and for the pain and distress that this has caused to you and all your family, we can ensure that this does not happen again.

"To this end I have instructed a group of staff to review immediately our policies and procedures around this," Mr Hackett wrote.