| Quite possibly to support a Cuban official's health needs, or sold in the underground transplant organ market. |
A MAN whose son died on holiday in Cuba demanded yesterday to know why his body was returned to the UK with organs missing.
Andrew Redfern, 37, died after slipping and hitting his face on a marble floor in a hotel. A post-mortem examination in the UK revealed his lungs, kidney and part of his brain were missing.
His father, Lawrence Redfern, 58, of Inverness, said: "If his organs were taken for transplants I wouldn't have minded, but nobody mentioned anything. Somebody just removed them without asking permission and no-one seems to know why. Because of this, the post-mortem in the UK did not reveal how he died. My family and I... want to make sure no other families have to go through this."
Mr Redfern, an offshore oil worker, of Wirral, Merseyside, went to Havana alone in August after splitting with his partner.
Mr Redfern, who has an 18-month-old daughter, slipped in the hotel lobby on the final day of his holiday. He suffered an injury to his face, which needed ten stitches. He had a seizure the next day and was taken to hospital, where he died.
A Foreign Office spokesman said post-mortem examinations were mandatory in Cuba for all non-residents and samples of organs and tissues may be taken for pathology reports.