Family Gets Grandma's Brain in Bag, Sues

A New Mexico family is suing a pair of funeral homes they say gave them their grandmother’s brain in the same bag as her personal effects. One of the family members says he took the bag, which was unsealed, unaware that it contained the brain, and left it in his truck until after the funeral. It was only when the family “smelled a foul odor” that they discovered the decomposing organ.

“We inherited the problem,” says the owner of the funeral home, blaming the problem on another funeral home in Utah which prepared the body. The owner of the Utah home says the brain was removed and bagged because it had sustained trauma. But he denies lumping the brain together with the woman’s effects, and suspects the New Mexico home of negligence. (More funeral home stories.)