Baby’s body found at hospital’s off-site laundry service

A St. Paul, Minnesota, hospital says it is working to identify the gap in its system that allowed a stillborn baby’s body to wind up at an off-site laundry service.

“This was a terrible mistake and we are deeply sorry,” Chris Boese, chief nursing officer for Regions Hospital, said in a statement. “We have processes in place that should have prevented this but did not.”

On Tuesday afternoon, an employee from Crothall Laundry in Red Wing, Minnesota, called police to report that a baby’s body had been found in items picked up from the hospital, a statement by Red Wing Police Chief Roger D. Pohlman said.

Officers were told that the body fell out of a sheet being prepared for cleaning, the statement said. The male infant had a tag on his ankle and was wearing a diaper, Pohlman stated. Foul play is not suspected, he said.

The baby was stillborn on April 4, and his body was placed in the hospital morgue, Pohlman said. “It is unknown how the baby ended up in the linens sent to Red Wing for cleaning.”

Hospital officials said Wednesday that they were “reaching out to the (baby’s) family to notify them of their mistake, and to express deep apologies and offer support.”