Faux pas in funeral home

Brisbane, May 26 (UNI) After corpses Mix-up last week, Brisbane City Council had to exhume a body at Mt Gravatt Cemetery, a spokesman for Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, today said.

The company Simplicity Funerals realised a wrong body had been placed in a coffin after the staff returned from a funeral last week.

After notifying the family, the body was exhumed and the correct body interred.

A spokesman for Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, however, refused to give further details ''in deference to the family's feelings.'' Anthony Perl, a spokesman for InvoCare, the national company that owns Simplicity Funerals, said although procedures were in place to limit any mix-ups, a staff member made a mistake.

''It's obvious in this kind of situation that all funeral arrangements are provided by human beings and at the end of the day no human is 100 per cent perfect,'' Mr Perl explained.

He said his company handled about 26,000 funerals a year and this was the first time such an incident had happened.

He declined to say if any action was taken against the staff member.

It is believed the family elected not to tell wider family members and friends of the incident because they did not want to distress them further.

UNI XC SB RK1748