Lydia Reid (activist)

Lydia Reid is a Scottish activist. She advocates for cause of parents who lost a child as an infant, and may have had their child's remains used for research, or disposed of, inappropriately and without consent.[1]

Birth and death of her son

At age 26, Reid gave birth to her a premature son, Gary Robert Paton, by Ceasarean section, on June 26, 1975. When he was six days old, he was transferred to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children ("Sick Kids") in Edinburgh[2] for surgery to remove a catheter. The baby was placed on life support after surgery on July 5, with reported brain damage. His parents agreed to a request by medical staff to terminate life support. He was briefly returned to life support by the hospital, but the hospital sent police to inform them that night that the child had died.[2][3]

A local funeral service showed her the child before burial, but she claims that the child they showed her was not her baby; Gary was smaller and had different hair colouring. The funeral staff denied this and argued that she was confused by post-partum depression.[2]

Advocacy and reform

In 1999, a scandal erupted, and it was revealed that hospitals frequently took organ or other tissue samples from dead babies for research without parental consent.[2][4] It was estimated that the organs or bodies of over 100,000 fetuses and stillbirths were being stored in medical labs, many either without any consent, or consent obtained in a way that rendered the parent unable to make an informed decision.[4]

News of the scandal prompted Reid to check with Sick Kids. She obtained medical records showing that his organs had been removed, despite assurances from the hospital to the contrary. Reid formed a network with other parents, called Justice for Innocents.[2] Many of its members' requests for their children's medical records were responded to with redacted documents. Her efforts led authorities to form a review group. Its McLaren Report concluded that there were about 6,000 organs still being held, and that tighter regulations of the industry were needed.[2] The parents sued for return of the organs.[2] Many parents were successful (though sometimes it took as many as four separate returns), but not Reid, as the hospital insisted that none of the organs were stored.

Later developments

Eventually, Reid obtained a court order to exhume her son's body. Dame Susan Black performed the exhumation; she verified that it was the correct grave through artefacts found in it, but concluded that no body had been buried there.[5]

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References
  1. Dailyrecord.co.uk (2017-10-23). ""It's all I have left' Mum who found her baby's coffin empty demands lab sample". dailyrecord. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  2. "For 42 years, she mourned at her son's grave. Turns out, the coffin was empty". Duluth News Tribune. Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  3. "Grieving mum's fight to bury son who tragically died after just seven days". www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  4. "Why did Professor Dick van Velzen think butchering babies was right?". The Independent. 1999-12-05. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  5. "Mother finds empty coffin after 40-year campaign to exhume her baby's remains". The Independent. 2017-09-02. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
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