Mum Kay Bines is facing an agonising three-week wait to find out whether her baby daughter, Pauline, was buried without her brain in the wake of the body parts scandal which has rocked the nation, writes Peter Barrington.

Pauline died after suffering brain haemorrhages just two days after being born in 1994, and a post-mortem examination was carried out to determine the cause of death.

Kay BinesMrs Bines, 34, of Market End Way, Bicester, said she had relived her loss since a report into Liverpool's Alder Hey children's hospital was published on Tuesday.

It was only after reading the Oxford Mail that she learned the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust had kept 4,400 brains - including 350 belonging to children - the second highest in the country behind Alder Hey.

Mrs Bines said: "I went into premature labour and had to be rushed by ambulance to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital where I had a Caesarean operation.

"I had to give permission for life support machines to be turned off. After Pauline died I gave consent for the hospital to conduct a post-mortem. They wanted to find out the reasons for the haemorrhages.

"I thought that her brain would be returned for the funeral. I did ask the funeral director about seeing Pauline before she was buried but he told me it would be a closed coffin. Pauline was buried in Bicester cemetery."

Mrs Bines rang the special helpline number set up by the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust for relatives to inquire what had happened to their loved ones' organs.

She said: "I never thought what was happening in Liverpool had also happened here.

"It was a shock. I have rung the hospital hotline but I have been told I will have to wait two or three weeks before they can tell me if Pauline was returned to us complete. It is the heart, brain and lungs that is the soul of a person, not just the outer skin."

Pauline was Mr Bines's third child. She has two children now aged 15 and ten and has since had a fourth child, now aged six.

She said: "The whole business is agonising. You never really get over the death of a child, although you begin to put it in perspective.

"But I am always reminded of her death when Pauline's birthday comes round and at Christmas. You think about how she would be now had she lived."

**The helpline number is 01865 222177.