Daughter grieved over stranger's body for almost half an hour after hospital nurses mistakenly told her 'your mother's dead'

A heartbroken daughter grieved over the body of a stranger for almost half an hour after hospital nurses mistakenly told her 'your mother's dead'.

Bernadette Walsh spent about 25 minutes stroking and holding the hand of the dead woman after she arrived to visit her mother at North Manchester General Hospital and was told she had died.
It was only when nurses told an upset Ms Walsh that 'Roy's on his way' and she questioned who 'Roy' was that medical staff realised their mistake and took her to one side to admit the blunder.
They said her mother Elizabeth, 82, had been moved from the room on an orthopaedics ward where she had been the previous week and had been replaced by another patient who later died.

The dead woman, whose identity has not been revealed, bore a striking resemblance to her mother.
Mother-of-four Ms Walsh, 53, said: 'No-one told me she'd been moved so I went into the room to visit her, the same room she'd been in all week. Mum's duffle coat was on the chair.
'The woman in the bed had grey hair and had thin bones like my mum. She had a pink nightie like my mum. I had no reason to think it wasn't mum.
'She didn't look right and I didn't think she was breathing. I went out of the room to ask one of the nurses what was wrong and they said "don't you know? She died half-an-hour ago".
'Well, I just lost it then. I'd only spoken to her the previous night. I was in shock and completely hysterical. They were trying to calm me down.
'The nurses were saying I should stroke her hand and show her some love. So I was holding her hand and stroking her. I called my sister and told her she was dead.'
However, it turned out that her mother, a widow from Whitefield, was in fact very much alive and recovering from a hip operation – in another ward at the hospital.
Ms Walsh, from Droylsden, Greater Manchester, said: 'One of the [nurses] said "Roy's on his way" and I said "who's Roy?". They took me into another room and said "that's not your mum".
'They took me to my mum on another ward and she was sitting in a chair looking at me, saying "what's up?" I told her I'd had a shock. I couldn't really tell her "they just told me you're dead".'
The shop worker has now lodged an official complaint about the incident on October 29, although she hasn't told her mother - who has Alzheimer's - about the blunder.
She added: 'I just felt sick. When I went home I went to the shop and fell on the pavement and smashed my face on the floor. I think it was the shock.
'They never told me she'd been moved. And they must have known who my mum was because I'd been going at 2pm after work each day all week. I could have had a heart attack.'

Her boyfriend, painter and decorator Anthony Lewis, 42, who had gone to the hospital with her, said: 'Bernie just collapsed to the floor when they said her mum was dead.
'Then they said it was someone else. The whole thing was a big cock-up. I just couldn't believe it.'
Elizabeth, a retired shop worker, who has ten children, 20 grandchildren and three great grandchildren, remains in hospital.
Bosses at North Manchester General Hospital have now apologised for the incident, branding it 'unacceptable'.
Gill Harris, chief nurse at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: 'We are deeply sorry about the traumatic circumstances surrounding Ms Walsh's visit to ward I5 Orthopaedics at North Manchester General Hospital on October29.
'This is unacceptable and we have been in contact with the family to offer our unreserved apology and to discuss what happened so that we can learn from this mistake and ensure that it does not happen again.'
Daily Mail