Cincinnati hospital apologizes for lost remains of baby

CINCINNATI -- The University of Cincinnati Medical Center has apologized for the lost remains of a newborn baby.

Police helped a private company search for the body at the Rumpke Landfill over the weekend, but the body was not found.

Police say a woman delivered premature twins, a boy and a girl, at UC Health on Sept. 14. The girl was a stillborn and the boy lived for about an hour and died.

Cincinnati Police Captain Terri Theetge tells CBS affiliate WKRC-TV that the stillborn baby's remains were found but the boy's had been lost.

"The parents were making arrangements with the hospital for the remains of the children," said Theetge. "And when the time came to decide to do what they were going to do with those remains, UC Hospital was unable to locate one of the two babies."

UC Health officials told police someone had mistakenly disposed of the remains. Investigators have determined that no criminal actions took place.

A statement was issued on Monday in which Richard Lofgren, the president and CEO, apologized for the situation.

"I promise the family that we will never let a situation like this happen again," Lofgren said. "We have already begun to put in place steps to ensure that this kind of tragic human error cannot occur again."