A Minneapolis woman is suing Abbott Northwestern Hospital, claiming a mix-up robbed the family of following Jewish traditions after her mother’s death.

The daughter’s lawsuit accuses Abbott’s Minneapolis campus and a cremation business of breach of duty after Suzanne Trumbull died on Mother’s Day at the Minneapolis hospital and her body was put in a bag marked with another patient’s name and cremated without the family’s permission.

Trumbull’s daughter, Jill Holmquist of Minneapolis, said in the lawsuit the mix-up did not allow the family to sit with the body before being buried or cremated as is a Jewish tradition.

Allina Health System is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed Sept. 29 in Hennepin County District Court. The family already settled with the business, Crescent Tide Cremation Services.

Holmquist said in the lawsuit that she was denied the right to say goodbye to her mother according to her spiritual tradition and was denied the option to decide whether to bury her mother’s body or have her cremated.

Trumbull’s daughter said she made arrangements for the Hodroff-Epstein funeral home to pick up her mother’s body from the hospital.

On May 12, however, Holmquist received a call from Hodroff-Epstein that staffers went to the hospital to pick up her mother and were told the body was retrieved by a different company, according to the lawsuit.

Holmquist called the hospital and learned that Crescent Tide had taken the body and cremated her mother’s remains after the mix-up with the body bags, the lawsuit said.

In a statement, Allina Health said it takes the allegations “very seriously.”

“Our thoughts are with the family during what we recognize is an incredibly difficult and emotional situation,” the statement said. “We are reviewing the matter carefully and remain committed to providing respectful, compassionate care to every patient and family we serve.”

Holmquist’s attorney, Samuel Savage, said “my understanding is that there were two bodies in the morgue at the time, somebody named Barbara and then Suzanne, my client’s mother. And they put Suzanne in the body bag labeled Barbara. So, when the crematorium came by to pick up Barbara, they took the bag labeled Barbara that contains Suzanne and then cremated it. By the time Abbott or Allina figured it out, it was too late.”

Savage researched protocols from several mortuary science professors and found hospitals should triple-check identities before releasing bodies to funeral homes. Some hospitals, he said, require family members to confirm identities.

Savage declined to give details of the settlement with Crescent Tide.

Mediation talks with Allina Health System failed to provide a remedy, leading Holmquist to file her lawsuit, he said.

Holmquist said in the lawsuit that the Hodroff-Epstein funeral home offered to bring her an urn with her mother’s remains, but she worried it might not actually contain her mother’s ashes after the mix-up.

Savage said Hodroff-Epstein has custody of the urn. His client will decide what to do with those remains at a later date.

“She continues to be upset she was denied her last moment with her mother,” Savage said.

Holmquist is seeking more than $50,000 in damages for emotional distress and noted the hospital had the duty to handle her mother’s remains respectfully.

According to the lawsuit, Holmquist had previously informed Hodroff-Epstein that she intended to cremate her mother’s remains after sitting with the body, but had not yet signed a formal contract.

“Errors like this are rare, but when it does happen, the consequences for families can be devastating,” said Martha Thayer, a mortuary science professor and the founder of Colorado-based Mortuary Training. “That is why consistent identification procedures and verification at every transfer of care are essential.”

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