Agolia Moore was shocked to get a call telling her that her son was found dead in an Alabama prison of a suspected drug overdose. She had spoken to him to earlier that evening and he was doing fine, talking about his hope to move into the prison’s honor dorm, Moore said.

When his body arrived at the funeral home, after undergoing a state autopsy, the undertaker told the family that the 43-year-old’s internal organs were missing. The family said they had not given permission for his organs to be retained or destroyed.

Moore said her daughter and other son drove four hours to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where the autopsy had been performed, and picked up a sealed red bag containing what they were told was their brother’s organs. They buried the bag along with him.

Six families, who had loved ones die in the state prison system, have filed lawsuits against the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections and others, saying their family members’ bodies were returned to them missing internal organs after undergoing state-ordered autopsies. The families crowded into a Montgomery courtroom Tuesday for a brief status conference in the consolidated litigation.

    • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      when you work with dying people sometimes its hard to see the humor. especially when those statements are actually heard without sarcasm, like ‘i dont want an organ from black person’

      • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        3 months ago

        i hope you tell those people “you’ll get the organ that’s compatible, and you’re not going to know from whom it came. or we can take you off the list, your call”