Alder Hey organs scandal

In 1996, four years after Samantha's death, her mother Helen Rickard learned of the allegations of excessive mortality rates for children's heart surgery at the BRI.

Rickard demanded a copy of her infant daughter's medical records from the hospital and found a letter from the pathologist who performed the post-mortem to her surgeon, stating that he had retained Samantha's heart.

[5] Rickard quit her job in order to find out exactly what had happened to her daughter; she set up a support group with other parents and ran a free phone helpline to cater to the many other families affected as well.

In the meantime, serious doubts about the quality of paediatric cardiac surgery at Bristol led to the formation of a Public Inquiry, chaired by Ian Kennedy.

In September 1999 a medical witness to the Inquiry drew attention to the large number of hearts held at the Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.

[7] A large scale public outcry against the National Health Service resulted when it was revealed that Dutch pathologist Dick van Velzen had systematically ordered the "unethical and illegal stripping of every organ from every child who had had a postmortem" during his time at the hospital.

[11] In January 2004, more than 2,000 families filed suit against the NHS with the High Court for removing the body parts of dead patients, including children, without consent.

December 1995 – Dick van Velzen leaves Alder Hey and begins work at IWK Grace Hospital in Nova Scotia.

September 1999 – A medical witness at the BRI inquiry draws attention to the large number of hearts held at the Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.

4 February 2001 – Prosecutors in Halifax, Nova Scotia, indicate that they are prepared to ask for the extradition of Prof Dick van Velzen relating to the discovery of children's organs in heat-sealed bags at a rented warehouse.

20 June 2005 – General Medical Council rules that Dutch pathologist Dick van Velzen should be banned from practising medicine permanently in the UK.