A hospital said yesterday it would give fresh guidance to staff after a doctor and nurse handed a 14-year-old girl her miscarried foetus in a specimen bottle and told her to take it home.
She took the 11-week foetus to her parents who stored it in the family's fridge overnight.
Staff at Bishop Auckland Hospital, in County Durham, part of a trust awarded the top three-star rating on Tuesday, did not offer any explanation but later sent a midwife and an undertaker to collect it when the girl's parents complained.
The County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals Trust apologised yesterday and said it would be "issuing guidance on how to deal with a similar situation in the future".
A spokesman said it could say nothing about existing practice or new guidance because of the risk of infringing the girl's right to confidentiality.
Darlington's Northern Echo newspaper reported that the girl began to miscarry on Monday lunchtime while in a McDonald's restaurant.
She went for help to the £67m private finance initiative hospital, which was hailed as a flagship development when it was opened by Tony Blair two years ago.
Hospital staff handed her and her mother the foetus, which was in a specimen bottle enclosed in a blue plastic bag and a brown padded envelope. The family was told to take it home overnight and to return it to the gynaecology department the following day.
"We saw a nurse and a doctor who told us to take the foetus back for the night," the girl's mother told the newspaper. "They didn't explain and we were too upset to argue. We felt numb.
"They took it away then brought it back and put it in an envelope. When we got home all we could think of to do was to put in the fridge.
"We are all upset about it, especially as I lost a baby myself recently.
"It was very insensitive, particularly in view of my daughter's age.
"We knew our daughter was pregnant. She was looking forward to having the baby after what happened to me. Now she is devastated."
Her father said: "Something is seriously wrong at that hospital."
The trust's spokesman said he could not confirm the facts of the Echo's story. "If the family were identified that would be a great breach of medical confidentiality," he said. "Our hands are somewhat tied."
He said he could not comment on usual practice when a baby is stillborn nor on the new guidance to be given to staff.
"We are talking about a 14-year-old girl and we do not know what her position is in terms of seeking publicity or otherwise for a traumatic event such as a miscarriage," he said.
