Dead Teen's Classmates Discover His Brain in Jar on Field Trip to the Morgue

[Elmore Furth]

This seems like a no-brainer.

(AP) A Staten Island couple is suing New York City after the shocking discovery that their dead son's brain was on display in a jar at a city morgue.

Jesse Shipley was 17 when he died in a car crash in 2005.

Andre and Korisha Shipley said they had no idea his brain was removed during an autopsy until some of the teen's classmates at Port Richmond High School visited a morgue on a field trip.

While on the tour, the kids, who were members of a forensic science club, came across a jar with a brain floating inside and their dead friend's name on the label. . .the group of kids included Jesse Shipley's girlfriend and her best friend.

Dead Teen's Classmates Discover His Brain in Jar

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Well, it is a forensic science club, and this is forensic science...

although the doc will probably hear something about waiting for six brains before the trip to Staten Island.

(Dunno what the city is being sued for, but it would be nice for them to pay for the disinterral.)

[Generic Brad]

2. Was his name "Abby Normal"?

[datasuspect]

3. at least they didn't eat it

[NV Whino]

4. Pure stupidity to label it with a name

rather than a code or a number.

[petronius]

5. "Student Samantha Feldman, now 22" - there must be some dates

missing in this article. I doubt Staten Island kids stay in HS into their 20s.

If the boy died in 2005, I'd bet that the visit occurred soon after that, and the suit is just being filed. The 'six brains' explanation would make more sense if it was a matter of months rather than years...

[Orrex]

8. I did some further Googling, and you're correct.

The Shipleys had to get a court order for the city to return their son’s brain. Feeling that the burial was incomplete without it, the Shipleys had their son’s grave reopened after 6 months so the brain could be buried with the body. They are suing New York City for unspecified monetary damages for the emotional distress they suffered in the ordeal. The Medical Examiner’s office claims to have done nothing wrong.

(emphasis mine)
http://www.indyposted.com/114719/nyc-dead-teens-parents-find-sons-brain-in-a-jar-and-sue-city/

An autopsy determined the cause of Jesse's death was blunt impact skull fractures.
Two months later, several of Jesse and younger sister Shannon's classmates from Port Richmond High School were on a forensic science club field trip at the Staten Island Mortuary, where they saw a brain being kept in a jar of formeldahyde. In what a judge called "a surreal coincidence," the "label on the jar indicated that the brain was that of Jesse Shipley."

(emphasis mine)
http://www.quedit.com/detail/family-sues-me-office-after-discovering-sons-brain-was-removed-3086147.html?LID=18&tmp=user

Good call, petronius!

[Bunny]

6. I'm not familiar with the area. How far away is Staten Island?

A doctor at the Richmond County Mortuary, Stephen de Roux, said in a deposition that the brain had been kept along with others for additional tests related to the autopsy - a routine procedure to avoid having a specialist make repeated treks out to Staten Island for non-urgent tests.

"I wait months until I have six brains, and then it's kind of worth ... the trip to Staten Island to examine six brains," he said. "It doesn't make sense for him to come and do one."

They make it sound like going to Staten Island is like mounting an expedition to Antarctica or something. :eyes:

[Sweet Charming Dem]

7. Well, it's a 20 minute ferry ride from Manhattan

And the ferry is free.