A grieving family saying good-bye to police officer who passed away last week got a rude awakening when the city decided to take his corpse during memorial services. Howard Wong told the Post that 10 minutes before his brother George's wake, "The Medical Examiner called us and said they need to reclaim the body. The Health Department had issues with the wording on the cause of death—that he died from exposure to 9/11 toxins—and they ordered the Medical Examiner's Office to do it over."
Police officer George Wong, who had been on the NYPD for 20 years and retired in 2006, lost his two year battle with gastric cancer. However, the Post says he "always believed his disease was caused by his time at Ground Zero following the 9/11 attacks. His hospice doctor, Lyla Correoso, agreed, writing 'cancer' from '9/11 toxic exposure' on his death certificate." But that didn't sit well with the city. Here's how the Daily News describes the city's response:
A wake was planned for 3 p.m. Monday at the funeral home on Mulberry St.
But at 2:45 p.m., while the grief-stricken Wong family was inside, the funeral home received frantic calls from the Medical Examiner's office demanding they return the body to the morgue.
The city apparently disputed the wording on the death certificate.
The family was flabbergasted. The funeral home refused, ordering the ME's office to get the body themselves - after the Wong family's service was over.
Officials removed the body from the funeral home at 10 p.m. Monday, forcing the Wongs to postpone the funeral service scheduled for Tuesday.
The medical examiner's office only released the body back to the funeral home after scrubbing any mention of 9/11 from the death certificate.
The Wongs were so upset they refused to allow an autopsy. A police source lamented to the Post, "It's reprehensible. You don't give the body back to the morgue. Even perps don't deserve this. It's about being a human being. Everyone is livid over this."
The city has been fighting claims about illness related to 9/11 exposure for years until a deal was made last year—and this is not the first time the city has doubted someone died from exposure to working at Ground Zero.
