Kaiser Accused Of Losing Baby's Body

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ROSEVILLE, Calif. (CBS13) ― It's amixture of grief and anger for a young Sacramento father who asks, "Who would be that careless to lose a baby?"

Baby Autumn lived for only two hours. Now her parents are dealing with losing her, not once, but twice. The Sacramento couple claims Kaiser Roseville lost their daughter's body.

The baby's father, who does not want his family publicly identified, says, "The whole father thing is hitting me. I can't protect her. She is not protected. I don't know where she's at now."

The premature baby was born at 20 weeks. Her parents spent several hours with her before entrusting her body to employees at Kaiser -- a trust they now feel was misplaced.

The couple says they made it clear to Kaiser they wanted to give their daughter a proper burial. When the funeral home came to pick up the remains from the hospital's morgue, the baby could not be found.

"There is nothing. They have her signed in. Nothing signed out. She's just gone," the father said.

The death had already taken a huge emotion toll on the mother. She said she was just beginning to deal with her daughter's death when Kaiser representatives came to their home to deliver the news.

The mother says she needs her daughter's body and a proper burial to move on.

"It's just like an open gap, like they are making it seem like she never existed," says the mother holding back tears.

This is not the first time Kaiser has been accused of losing a baby's body. The hospital was sued in 1999 after an Alameda couple claimed the hospital lost their still born daughter.

In 2006, Kaiser in Sacramento mistakenly gave the body of a premature baby to a funeral home. The baby was buried with the bodies of another family's twins.

Ed Glavis, the Senior Vice President and Area Manager of Kaiser Permanente in Roseville and Sacramento issued this statement to CBS 13.

"Due to patient privacy laws we are not able to discuss the details of any individual patient matter. In a case such as the one described we would offer our sincere apologies, work around the clock to investigate every possible avenue that could lead to an explanation and resolution of such a painful situation, and reach out to those involved to offer comfort and support. Our heart would go out to any family for the pain they would suffer and the additional burden a situation like this would place upon them. We would not rest until we understood exactly what occurred and had taken steps to prevent it from ever happening again."

Kaiser is investigating what happened to the baby's body. The couple wants the hospital to bring someone in from outside the Kaiser system for an independent investigation to try to locate their daughter.

The couple didn't get the opportunity to raise their daughter, but they wanted her surrounded by family for eternity. The father says, "I was supposed to lay her with my sister and great grandmother. That was my protection for her and I don't know where she is at."