Northern Manitoba community 'in shock' after hospital sent wrong body to grieving family: Chief

Manitoba's health authority is investigating after a family in a small northern community received and buried remains they believed belonged to a loved one — but in fact were someone else's.

The family of 44-year-old Keith Wilson from Pimicikamak Cree Nation was notified by Manitoba Shared Health earlier this week that the funeral home which made preparations for the burial received the wrong remains, according to leaders of the community, which is also known as Cross Lake.

Wilson's body was found in a river near Norway House Cree Nation, local RCMP said in a release late July. The man had been reported missing, and had last been seen June 29.

Police said an autopsy had then been performed on the body. On Thursday, Shared Health told CBC News in a statement they couldn't provide specific details because of the Personal Health Information Act (PHIA), but confirmed the body of someone who was in its care for an autopsy was released to the wrong family.

The Cross Lake Band said Shared Health officials reached out to the family to tell them staff at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre noticed the mistake while doing an inventory of the hospital's morgue.

"They found that [through] the tags that they have, they still had Mr. Wilson's body there," Pimicikamak Chief David Monias said.

"The family is in shock. We're in shock. We're in disbelief that this would happen to our citizens.… We were grieving and mourning the wrong body and now, starting all over again."

Monias told CBC News the band reached out to Shared Health to clarify how the mistake happened.

Pimicikamak vice-chief Florence Blacksmith has been in touch with the family. She said the body was in a sealed casket, and that none of them could have noticed they were burying the wrong body.

Wilson's father "has been taking it hard," Blacksmith said. "His girlfriend called me two nights in a row that he's been crying. All I can do is send a priest over there to go pray for him, and to talk to him."

Funeral services for Wilson were held in late July. The remains were buried in Norway House.

Norway House Funeral Home declined to comment on the situation. In the statement issued by Shared Health, Chief Larson Anderson said the health authority had taken "full responsibility" for the incident.

"The funeral director, because the body was not recognizable, how would they know?" Monias said. 

"Will this happen anywhere else? I mean, has this happened anywhere else?"