LI Man Says Mother's Organs Were Harvested In NYC Without Permission

LONG ISLAND, NY — The Rockville Centre son of a deceased Seaford woman filed a complaint against New York City Health and Hospitals after claiming his mother's organs were harvested for donation without her or his consent, court documents show.

According to the complaint, which was filed this May in the New York County Supreme Court, on May 7, 2022, the plaintiff's mother Myriam Hoyos De Baldwich, 69, was struck by a Brooklyn-bound "L" train in the subway tunnel underneath the intersection of Avenue of the Americas and West 14th Street.

The complaint said that the city of New York did not exercise due diligence in identifying Hoyos De Baldwich's body and telling her next of kin what happened.

According to the complaint, the family filed a missing persons report with the Nassau County Police Department on May 8, not knowing that Hoyos De Baldwich had been hit by the train and taken to Bellevue Hospital.

The complaint also said that it wasn't until May 19 that the family recieved a call from the Nassau Police Department that Hoyos De Baldwich was brain dead and that her organs had been harvested for donation at LiveOnNY, a nonprofit organ donation organization.

"[The City of New York and New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation], its agents, servants, and/or employees were negligent, reckless, and careless in the premises," the complaint said, in part, noting that Hoyos De Baldwich's body's dissection and organ donation was a "violation of the decedent's personal and cultural wishes."

LiveOnNY told ABC7 that of the 272 people who had their organs donated to LiveOnNY in 2022, six were unidentified people.

The complaint alleges that Hoyos De Baldwich had written proof of her identity on her person at the time of her death. However, according to ABC7, New York City Health and Hospitals said that Hoyos de Baldrich did not have a recognized form of legal identification when she arrived at Bellevue Hospital.

Hoyos de Baldrich's wallet, phone, and jewelry have never been found, the outlet reported.