Coroner kept man’s heart after autopsy – mom wasn’t told
‘For Selina Picon, the sudden death of her son Nicholas from an undetected heart defect last fall was the first shock.
The second blow came less than a month after his burial, when she learned that the San Mateo County coroner had kept her son’s heart after his autopsy.
She went into action, winning the return of the heart of the sensitive, artistic 23-year-old – one of 105 organs the San Mateo coroner has kept from about 1,800 autopsies since 2004. And she’s fighting a little-known state law that allows authorities to keep body parts after autopsies without notifying relatives.’
