Wrong Baby Sent to Family for Burial

By NBC News

Wrong Baby Sent to Family for Burial

August 2, 2012 Updated Aug 2, 2012 at 9:31 AM PDT

The New York City medical examiner's office says it is responsible for an error that resulted in a Brooklyn family burying someone else's stillborn baby in their native Poland.

Justyna and Rafal Sliwa told the New York Post they were notified of the mix-up July 6. They held a memorial service in Brooklyn on June 16 for a stillborn they believed to be theirs. The funeral home sent the remains to the couple's hometown of Lomza, Poland, where a funeral was held June 19.

Information on the other family was not made public. A spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, Ellen Borakove, said the babies had "strikingly similar names.''

The office is investigating how the mix-up occurred.

Borakove called it a "tragic, unfortunate error we have to make right.''

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