A YORK mum is still desperately waiting to be told what has happened to part of her premature daughter's body, which was removed by York District Hospital eight years ago.

Fiona Chilton, 27, of Acomb, only found out last year that her baby's brain was removed and then sent to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for tests.

She said she grieved for baby Emma seven years ago, and for the last year-and-a-half has been forced to relive the ordeal and been plagued by sleepless nights and horrible "Frankenstein" nightmares.

She has now been told that YDH has blocks and slides of tissue samples and that she can have them back to bury with her daughter.

She wants the brain as well so that she can bury Emma "completely" and not have to endure two burials - but she still getting no answers from the Leeds trust.

"I can't believe I still don't know what has happened to Emma's brain. I imagine it's been got rid of or why would I still not have it back so I can bury her completely.

"I never imagined until the Alder Hey scandal that I didn't bury Emma completely.

"I am so angry with both hospitals for what they have done. How dare they remove parts of my daughter and not even tell me. They are not God, they had no right.

"They took away Emma's dignity and I will never forgive them. When I think about what happened to Emma I think about Frankenstein and what he did. This is no better."

Mike Proctor, director of nursing at the York Health Trust has answered Fiona's questions and offered the slides for burial. But she still feels she will never fully get the answers to her questions and will have no peace until she has all of Emma back.

A spokesman for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We can fully understand Mrs Chilton's concerns and will be writing to her this week to acknowledge her call and to explain why we have not yet been able to provide the information she has asked us for.

"Many of the inquiries we receive on organ retention issues are extremely complicated and need to be fully investigated before we can provide a detailed response. The size and complexity of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals inevitably mean we have more inquiries to deal with than smaller hospitals. We have been prioritising this work by dealing with older inquiries first.

"As soon as we have all the information required we will of course be contacting Mrs Chilton so that we can answer her questions."

Updated: 11:44 Thursday, January 31, 2002