Complaint Review: Katz Women's Hospital at Long Island Jewish Medical Center

My wife and I suffered a miscarriage in January 2018 at 24 weeks gestation. We signed documentation instructing the Katz Women's Hospital at Long Island Jewish Medical Center to bury our child in a government cemetery.

Last month, in April, a lady from the hospital called me to tell me that a law passed in January requiring hospitals to only bury miscarried children that reach 25 weeks gestation.

Here is video footage that shows my son at 24 weeks gestation after my wife delivered him. The video plays audio of the hospital representative screaming at me that the hospital supposedly talked to the city on our behalf to exempt us and allow the hospital to bury my child in the government cemetery. She's also pressuring me to agree to a burial arrangement to which I already agreed. And she refuses to make assurances in writing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5EsEdZ7NnE

The hospital rep lied by telling me that she had been calling me for over a month. I have no phone records of missing calls from Katz Women's Hospital at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

The lady asked me how I was going to handle the burial arrangements. The lady who called me was very rude and demanded that I called her back with a response by the end of the day.

My wife and I are working to find closure and work through the mental trauma and everything that came with our loss. It was devastating to hear that the hospital did not abide by our wishes; the bad news stirred up all those feelings of loss again. My wife started crying.

According to a lawyer I know, the law to which the hospital representative was referring was passed on March 7, 2018. It is titled Section 4-160 Public Health Law, regarding fetal law and registration. The hospital told me that since the law went into effect in January, the hospital could not bury my son in the city cemetery.

The hospital representative is not telling me the truth because Title 5: Section 4160 reads nothing in regards to the prohibition of city burials of stillborn fetuses under 25 weeks:
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PBH/A41T5

The New York City Health Code, Article 203 - Termination Of Pregnancy - reads that the city requires that embryos that have reached 24 weeks of gestation be discarded as the city allows; New York City demands another type of permit to allow the burial of a fetus that has not reached 24 weeks of gestation:

"§203.09 Disposal of conceptus.

Every conceptus that has completed 24 or more weeks of gestation shall be disposed of in a
manner provided for human remains generally and in accordance with a disposition permit
issued pursuant to Article 205 of this Code. When, however, a conceptus has not completed 24 weeks of gestation, it may be disposed of in accordance with a disposition permit issued pursuant to Article 205 of this Code, upon request."

If the hospital is basing its demands on this health code, no special provisions would be required, for my son had reached over 24 weeks of gestation.

A lawyer has advised me to get everything that they say in writing. Last I spoke to two of the hospital representatives, they told me that they supposedly talked to the city on my behalf, and they convinced them to allow us to have a city burial.

I merely asked them to put the way that they will be handling my son in writing. I don't want to agree to a city burial over the phone verbally, then risk the chance that they call me three months later telling me that any other change did not allow them to bury my son, and we go through this whole ordeal again.

They said they would get back to me. That was two weeks ago.