Hospital left dead mother to decompose before funeral: Suit
Springhill Medical Center in Mobile, Ala. (Google Maps).
An Alabama woman was already mourning the death of her mother when she got a shocking call from the funeral home about the state of her loved one. Now, she’s suing the hospital where her mother died.
Toilicia Williams lost her mother Charlene Williams in December 2023 after the 58-year-old died of heart failure. She agreed to have her mother’s body released to Small’s Mortuary, who called the grieving daughter to tell her that she needed to come down to see what they saw — her mother in an advanced state of decomposition. According to the lawsuit filed in Mobile County, Charlene Williams’ body was in such bad condition that the family was “unable to have a fully open-casket funeral service.”
The lawsuit, which was provided to Law&Crime by Williams’ lawyer Roger Varner, accused Springhill Medical Center of negligence and wantonness while storing Charlene Williams’ body in what they alleged was an “inadequately refrigerated room for 1 day, 14 hours, and 22 minutes.” In an interview with Mobile Fox affiliate WALA, Varner said that Springhill Medical Center did not have a proper morgue, only a cooling room to store the bodies of the deceased.
In the same interview, Williams described the experience of receiving the disturbing call from the funeral home, who apparently told her and her brothers, “We need you to get down here. We need to talk to you.” When they arrived, they saw the state of their late mother, whose body was in an unexpectedly advanced state of decomposition and bloated.
Williams told WALA, “I cried. It was me and my two other brothers. We fell down to the floor. It was just devastating to see her like that.”
A spokesperson for Springhill Medical Center told WALA that they do not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit does not claim any wrongdoing took place before Charlene Williams’ death. Her surviving daughter is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the hospital’s alleged mistreatment of her mother’s body.
