Beaumont Hospital has started an investigation into how an additional heart and set of lungs came to be found inside the body of a man returned to the UK after a postmortem carried out last month.
Louis Selo, a 55-year-old banking analyst from Surrey in England died following a heart attack while on holiday in Dublin at the beginning of August.
A postmortem examination was subsequently carried out at Beaumont Hospital before Mr Selo's body was returned to Britain for burial.
Such procedures generally involve the temporary removal of some organs.
However, when the body of Mr Selo was re-examined by a coroner in Britain, as is standard practice, it was discovered that another heart and pair of lungs had been placed inside the body in a bag.
A spokesman for Beaumont Hospital said yesterday that a top -level investigation was under way into the circumstances in which the incident had happened.
A spokesman said that disciplinary action could result on foot of the findings of the investigation, which are due shortly.
It is understood that the second heart and lungs had been taken from another body during a separate postmortem.
By the time Beaumont was notified of the discovery the other person had already been buried.
The organs were subsequently returned to the family concerned and were interred later following a religious ceremony.
A spokesman for Beaumont said that the hospital had apologised to both families.
He said that the hospital had expressed "deep regret for the incident which clearly should not have happened".
The spokesman for Beaumont added that the investigation had been started shortly after the hospital was notified from Britain about the discovery of the additional organs in the body of Mr Selo.
He said that the investigation team involved both medical and administrative staff.
A spokeswoman for the Health Service Executive said that it was aware that an investigation was currently under way into the incident and that it was awaiting the outcome.
The mother of Mr Selo, yesterday told a Sunday newspaper that the delays after her son's body was brought back from Ireland meant that the family could not bury him until August 16th, two weeks after his death.
"It was very distressing to us all," Laura Selo said.
