Hadassah-University Medical Center in Ein Kerem buried a stillborn baby without notifying the parents, N12 reported on Wednesday.
The parents, Yusef and Arin Awdallah from Ein Nakuba, were looking forward to welcoming their son into the world. Five months into the pregnancy, however, they were told their baby had died and would be stillborn. The moment the couple got to the hospital, they asked to bury the stillborn baby independently so that they could bury him according to Islamic law, but then they were told the hospital had already buried him.
"The fetus needs to go through purification and prayer before he's buried," Yusef told N12. "We asked to bury him according to Shariya Muslim law. I don't know how they buried him. My wife is in an indescribable mental state. She's just screaming and crying in the hospital."
A relative of the family spoke to a nurse in the hospital who told him that the burial happened by mistake. "What happened to them isn't enough, now this too?!" the relative said to N12.
Yusef claimed the hospital was lying to them. "They told us they were searching in the cemetery, but it closed, and then they said that he was probably buried alone, and he may have been buried in a marked grave. Every time they told a different story."
The couple has repeatedly asked for their baby to be exhumed but has not received a response from the hospital about whether it will happen. Yusef told N12 that he intends to get a court order. "I am asking for my will to be done, and to bury him according to law," he said.
In a response to N12, the hospital said: "In this hospital, we work according to the Health Ministry's guidelines that say that in the case of a failed pregnancy, the burial is done in a mass grave. Even so, due to recognition of the family's feelings and their religious beliefs, they were offered by the staff to carry out the burial the way they wanted. In practice, the burial was indeed done in a mass grave by mistake."