A Toronto mother is looking for answers and an apology after the hospital where she gave birth to a stillborn baby lost the infant’s body.
In fall 2021, Rachel Osbourne-Hutchinson was thrilled to be having a baby. Her pregnancy was going well, but seven weeks before she was due, Osbourne-Hutchinson thought she was going into early labour.
Her husband Chris drove her to Etobicoke General Hospital. Shortly after, she delivered a stillborn baby girl. She named her Iah, and was able briefly to hold her.
“Then the doctor came and said, [If] you do want to try [to get pregnant] again, it would be good to do an autopsy to see if it could tell you something … why this happened.’ We said ok,” explained Osbourne-Hutchinson.
At the time, she says she was told her baby would be sent to the Hospital for Sick Children to be examined. “Chris and I both signed paperwork approving the autopsy, they told us withn 24 hours her body would go to sick kids where they would complete the autopsy.”
Etobicoke General gave her footprints of her baby girl and she went home to grieve and arrange a funeral.
“I planned exactly what I wanted her celebration to look like,” she said.
But Osbourne-Hutchinson needed her baby’s body back first. She tried calling multiple times to find out when that would be but no one replied.
She waited weeks, and then months.
“I was concerned we weren’t hearing back from somebody, I didn’t know what to think,” Osbourne-Hutchinson recalled.
Six months after her baby was born, a grief support coordinator from SickKids Hospital called to tell her the hospital had started an investigation. Then, she received an email that stated Iah’s body did not go to the children’s hospital.
“I was just devastated, my mind started going to the worst case scenario, that my baby was out there in the cold, unprotected, by herself.”
Osbourne-Hutchinson says Etobicoke General staff told her they didn’t know where her baby’s body was either. “We don’t know what happened. That was it,” she told CityNews.
“I haven’t been able to say goodbye to her properly, it’s this lingering thing that weighs on my chest, I’m anxious all the time, this is an open wound I’m walking around with,” she added.
Almost two years later, in July of 2023, Osbourne-Hutchinson was pregnant again and about to give birth to her now one-year-old daughter when she got a phone call from an Etobicoke General employee.
“She said, ‘Oh, we have your daughter’s body, she was here the whole time.’ … They were just saying come pick her up like I left her at a daycare or something. This is two years later,” explained Osbourne-Hutchinson.
“Where was she all this time? And now, honestly, is the body you’re trying to give me even my daughter … I have no reason to trust them,” she added.
Months went by, and Osbourne-Hutchinson refused to take the body until she got answers. She said the hospital wasn’t helpful.
She says the hospital then gave her an ultimatum through a text to a friend who had been helping her. It stated: “If we don’t hear from you or Rachel by the end of day this Friday June 14, we will be proceeding with a hospital disposal process.”
Kathryn Marshall, Osbourne-Hutchinson’s lawyer, said her client wants a DNA test to prove this is her baby’s body, adding this is a case of gross negligence.
“That was absolutely appalling … the treatment of her baby like it was just a piece of garbage,” said Marshall “I don’t understand in this country and in our medical system, a baby could just be lost … and a patient told we don’t know where your baby is.”
So far, Marshall says the hospital is not willing to provide a DNA test and has not given a reason why. “We want her baby to come home, want to know it is her baby, and put her baby to rest.”
Marshall adds she and her client also want accountability. “We want to know what went wrong, where in the process did this fall apart? What is being done by the hospital to ensure this does not happen to another mother?”
CityNews reached out to Etobicoke General Hospital, asking if there’s been an investigation, and why it won’t agree to a DNA test.
A statement from the hospital reads in part, “We are not able to share details regarding individual patient matters.”
The Ministry of Health tells CityNews this case is “troubling” and “rare.” Ontario’s Chief Coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer also said that if there are concerns about the identity of a body, his office would typically investigate.
Meanwhile, Osbourne-Hutchinson continues to wait for the day she can honour her lost child.
“I feel like until I get answers and I get to properly say goodbye to her and get answers I feel like I have failed that child as a mother.”