California funeral home gives dead man's brain instead of clothes to his father, then leaves it out to rot for over 2 months

A California funeral home made a terrible and strange mistake when it handed over a bag with the brain of a young man to his father. It has been accused of mishandling human remains, ABC7 news reported. The man's father has filed a lawsuit that says the funeral director was supposed to give him a bag of his clothes. When he reached home, he realised the bag contained his son's brain. Alexander Pinon, 27, passed away on May 19 of this year. The incident happened at the Lima Family Erickson Memorial Chapel on Willow Street in San Jose. Samer Habbas, the family's attorney, told the outlet's I-Team, "They wanted to have a dignified farewell for him." According to the lawsuit, they opted for a "full-service memorial tribute package" worth $10,000. The family also wanted Pinon to be buried in nice clothes. So they asked the funeral director to return his original clothes.

He took the bag home, put the clothes in the laundry and out tumbled what resembled brain. He did not know at the time that it was his son's brain, Habbas said. Alex's father took it out of the washing machine and handed it to Anita Singh at the funeral home. Habbas said, "Ms Singh took the bag back from him. Never disclosed whose brain it was, never gave information, no apologies, and said, 'I'll take that from here.'" Alex was buried at Oak Hill Memorial Cemetery the next day.

Anita left the brain out in a box for over two months

Several weeks later, someone who worked at the funeral home reached out to his father and told him that it was Alex's brain in the bag. The whistleblower added that after the incident, Anita Singh placed it in a box and put it in the funeral home's courtyard. It remained there for over two and a half months, and an employee spotted it when the stench of a "rotting human brain" became overwhelming. Habbas told ABC7 News that the funeral home tried to cover up its mistake.

Habbas says the Lima Family funeral home referred them to its owner, Service Corporation International or SCI, the larges funeral service company in North America that operates under the Dignity Memorial brand. The company refused to comment on the issue, saying that since it is an active litigation, "we won't be commenting on this matter." Pinon's parents are also not ready to talk about the matter, and the lawyers are working on a plan to bury the brain.