Soldiers from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) provide final honors for a soldier who was killed in action in Afghanistan, at Arlington National Cemetery, Va., in 2014. The Armed Forces Medical Examiner has mishandled a substantial number of organs it collected during autopsies in recent years, according to new findings by the Defense Department’s Inspector General. (Luisito Brooks/U.S. Army)
The Armed Forces Medical Examiner System has mishandled a substantial number of organs it collected from autopsies in recent years, according to new findings by the Pentagon’s Inspector General.
Families were unaware their relatives’ organs and pieces of organs had been taken in some cases, while others didn’t have their wishes for the remains honored, a report of the findings released Monday said.
Defense Department officials failed to get next-of-kin instruction on how to dispose of organs for more than half of the 208 people who died that were included in the IG’s study.
The families of most of those people, 91%, were never told AFMES had retained an organ, the report said.
When disposition instructions were obtained, DOD officials failed to follow them 41% of the time, according to the report.
The system also failed to effectively track organs that examiners retained during autopsies, meaning DOD officials may not be able to respond to requests by families for information on the status of those remains.
The IG warned this may “cause emotional distress” for families who were missing the remains retained by AFMES, and who had plans to bury or dispose of them in another way.
The mismanagement was a result of the medical examiner system “not having clear policies and procedures in place to track retention, transportation, storage or release of the retained organs,” the report said.
AFMES officials had been unsure how to proceed with the disposition of the organs they had in their possession until the office of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness made the decision in 2022 to hold them for 10 years unless the next of kin requests they be returned.
The IG found that in at least 11 cases, retaining the organs for 10 years wouldn’t follow the next-of-kin’s wishes.
As of this month, AFMES retained 553 organs that need disposition, the report said. In at least 20 cases the examiner retained the brains and hearts of the dead. In one case, a heart was labeled as a brain, the report found.
AFMES, located at Dover Air Force Base, Del., is the only comprehensive forensic investigative service supporting the Defense Department and other federal agencies.
AFMES officials help identify all of the dead who fall under federal jurisdiction. They also analyze U.S. active-duty military deaths to identify health trends.
Autopsies on the 208 people included in the IG’s study were performed between 2006 and 2022.
They included 71 active-duty service members, 42 family members of service members, 20 DOD civilians or contractors and 11 retired service members.
The IG made several recommendations that addressed the report’s findings, including that AFMES reconsider the September 2022 decision and, unless the next of kin requested no further contact, notify them that AFMES has the retained organs and determine whether they want to provide disposition instructions.
If the September 2022 decision is maintained, the IG recommends steps be taken through targeted notifications or through a public awareness effort to ensure that the families are aware of the decision and their options.
