For 42 Years, She Mourned at Her Son’s Grave. Turns Out, the Coffin Was Empty.

Lydia Reid expectantly waited next to her infant son’s grave as his body was being exhumed. In solemn remembrance, Reid had visited the site nearly every week since her son’s early death in 1975. Despite her continuous vigil, Reid had always been suspect of the circumstances surrounding her child’s burial. The exhumation was taking place to determine if the child in the coffin actually belonged to Reid. An analysis by a forensic pathologist who studied the coffin’s contents determined that is was absent any human remains.

Reid is apparently another victim of what has been considered an “organ snatching” scandal that had been ongoing in British hospitals since the early 1950’s. In many instances, physicians would ask parents’ permission to harvest cell or tissue samples, implying heavily that only a small sample would be taken for research, and then harvest whole organs. It was the break of the scandal that served as momentum for Reid’s personal stand against a system that was hollowing out deceased infants and allowing them to be buried without their organs. Even though the unusual circumstances behind her son’s disappearance have not been unearthed, Reid has garnered some potent allies. Gordon Lindhurst of the Scottish Parliament wrote on her behalf and said that she deserved “closure” and also noted her role in “leading the campaign which exposed how hospitals had unlawfully kept deceased children’s body parts for research purposes.”

See Susan Hogan, For 42 Years, She Mourned at Her Son’s Grave. Turns Out, the Coffin Was Empty., The Washington Post, September 27, 2017.

Special thanks to Lewis Saret (Attorney, Washington, D.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.