REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Dec. 24 (UPI) -- A judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a woman who says a California medical examiner kept her son's heart because he died of a rare condition.
Selina Picon of Daly City has named both the doctor who performed the autopsy on her son, Nicholas, and San Mateo County as defendants. The trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 25, the Palo Alto Daily News reported.
Under California law, coroners are authorized to keep tissue or body parts needed for investigation into the cause of death without notifying the family
In her lawsuit, she alleges Dr. Peter Benson, who performed the autopsy, was an independent contractor, not a county employee.
Nicholas Picon died at 23 in 2006 of a congenital heart condition that had not been diagnosed. In court papers, Picon has alleged Benson kept the heart because he was "intrigued" by the condition and planned to give the heart to Stanford University.
The county, which has changed its policy on notifying relatives, argued the suit should be dismissed because there was no evidence Benson or anyone else violated the law. A judge dismissed the motion to dismiss Monday.
