Andrew Bandelow from Sudbrooke, Lincolnshire, died suddenly at his home in May and post-mortem tests were carried out at Lincoln County Hospital.

The organs were misplaced because another post-mortem examination was taking place in the same room.

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals apologised for the error.

The tests on the body were carried out by Paths Lincs, a pathology service run by the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals Trust.

Mr Bandelow was a keen amateur football referee and collapsed at his home after returning from a referee's meeting.
His mother Carol said a call from the coroner a week after her son died revealed two tracheas had been found in another body. One them belonged to Andrew.

The funeral was held on Wednesday, almost seven weeks after Mr Bandelow died.

"The weeks we had to wait were horrendous. I can't think of any other word... I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy," said Mrs Bandelow.

"People need to know that is it still going on. It has happened before... and guidelines need to be put in place to stop it happening to anyone else."

New procedures

The family has now lodged an official complaint against the trust.

In a statement, the hospital trust said: "In May we were alerted to an incident following two post-mortems at Lincoln County Hospital.

"The families of both patients were informed immediately.

"We would send our sincere apologies to the family of both patients involved and immediately put new procedures into place to ensure the risk of a similar incident happening ever again is reduced."

BBC