Most of those families whose dead children's hearts were taken without consent and stored at Greenlane Hospital's heart library have accepted "modest" compensation, MPs were told today.
Crown Health Finance Agency officials told the health select committee today that there had been 43 claimants against the hospital and 40 had accept a settlement.
Agency property manager Lynn Martin told MPs the compensation included recognition of what had happened, "a modest amount of money" and another sum of money set aside for ongoing costs such as counselling.
The settlement followed a multi-million dollar lawsuit by 42 parents against Auckland's Green Lane Hospital. The had claimed $50,000 in general damages and $20,000 in exemplary damages, but it is believed the payout was a fraction of that.
In 2002, Auckland Hospital stunned families by admitting it had kept more than 1300 hearts and other organs, mostly from babies and children some for more than 50 years up until as late as 2001.
Many were taken without permission after autopsies and kept in the hospital's library.
Grieving parents banded together to seek compensation from the Crown Health Financing Agency, the government entity which manages all medical misadventure claims against the public health system prior to July 1993.
