Extra organs found in body

weren't they?

Hospital to probe organ blunder

03/09/2006 - 22:51:49

A major investigation has been launched at an Irish hospital after the remains of a British tourist were sent home containing two hearts and four lungs.

The additional organs were discovered inside the body of 55-year-old Louis Selo during a second post-mortem examination in a UK hospital.

Mr Selo, from New Malden in Surrey, died of a massive heart attack in a taxi at Dublin Airport on August 2.

The former Standard Chartered Bank worker, who hit the headlines five years ago when he flew his son Sebastian to Australia for extremely rare brain surgery, had been on holiday with his wife Anna.

An initial post mortem examination was carried out at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital.

Days later, when his body was flown home for burial, it was re-examined by a pathologist, standard procedure when a Briton dies overseas.

The pathologist discovered a number of extra organs were stitched inside his corpse, inside a plastic viscera bag.

A coroner reported back to the hospital that major irregularities had been uncovered.

A spokesman for Beaumont Hospital confirmed that the internal investigation could result in disciplinary action.

"What happened should not have happened and we express our deep regret to those affected," he said.

"The hospital got in touch with both families the moment we became aware of the situation.

"A high-level inquiry is currently underway at the hospital and we expect the finding of that to be available shortly.

"It could lead to disciplinary action."

Mr Selo, a father-of-three, is said to have been a well-respected member of the British Jewish Community.

In 2001, he made regular appearances in the press as the media followed the progress of Sebastian, then aged nine.

In 2004, he attacked Merton social services, claiming that the council had failed his disabled son.

Today, Mr Selo's mother, Laura, told The Sunday Tribune that the family's grief was unimaginable.

"The problems with delays after Louis' body came to us meant that we could not bury my son until two weeks after he died," she said.

"It was very distressing to us all."

Mrs Ann Selo told an Australian newspaper after her husband's death: "He was our rock and life will never be the same without him."

A devastated Mrs Selo said there was no warning that her husband had a heart condition.

Mr Selo was taking his wife and Sebastian's twin, Monica, 14, on holiday to Dublin.

"In the taxi on the way to our hotel I started singing: 'In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone.'" Mrs Selo told the paper.

"Louis was sitting in the front of the taxi and he joined in."

Suddenly, Mr Selo stopped singing.

"The next thing the driver was calling the emergency department of the local hospital and he drove like a maniac to get us there within minutes," she said.

"As Louis was being taken inside I asked him to give me a sign he could hear me, but he didn't respond. I knew then it was serious," she said.

Beaumont Hospital carries out around 300 post-mortem examinations a year.

The spokesman added that staff were able to establish who was the original owner of the spare organs by checking what other autopsies had been carried out around the same time, and then by checking the results of pathological tests.

The extra organs found inside Mr Selo's body have been returned to the owner's family in Ireland and buried in a religious ceremony.

"EXTRA ORGANS FOUND IN BODY" is the thread title.


I came in here, thinking that one of our A2K ladies had had a threesome or something.