Coroner kept girl’s brain after autopsy

A coroner in London, Ont., may be in hot water after retaining the brain of a 10-year-old girl from Windsor on whom he’d performed an autopsy without informing her parents. Dr. Rick Mann apparently kept the organ for further study—a practice not unheard of in forensic pathology, as some tests require subjecting tissue to chemical solutions for extended periods of time. But as you can imagine, obtaining consent from loved ones in such circumstances is an important prerequisite. In this instance, the child was buried without her brain. It’s the second time Mann’s been accused in such a case: in October 2008, he kept the brain of Sanja Pandzic, a seven-year-old girl from Woodstock, following her death that same month. He failed to inform her Muslim family until two days after she was buried, according to the Windsor Star.

Windsor Star