News

2 Families Say Girls' Bodies Were Mixed Up After Car Crash & the Wrong Organs Donated

NewsPublished Mar 10, 2020
By Kaitlin Stanford
Samara Cook and Deleigha GibsonCBS This Morning

Two families in Florida have filed shocking lawsuits after they say the bodies of their teen daughters were mixed up following a fatal car crash in July. Worst of all, the mix-up led one of the girls to have her organs removed by a medical examiner and donated -- even though she wasn't an organ donor.

Samara Cooks, 15, and Deleigha Gibson, 18, both died July 29, 2019, when the car they were traveling in hit a utility pole.

It was just after 1:30 a.m. on a warm summer night, and although a crash report revealed that alcohol was not involved in the crash, the car is believed to have veered into another lane before swerving back and hitting the pole, NBC News reported.

Two other passengers were also in the car at the time but survived. Both Cooks and Gibson were pronounced dead at the scene.

According to Samara's mother, Renada Cooks, the mix-up initially happened at the accident scene.

Her lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in Escambia County Circuit Court, names the Florida Highway Patrol, county medical examiner's office, and the two funeral homes that received the bodies. (According to NBC, the Gibson family filed a separate lawsuit.)

In it, the family lays out what they feel was gross negligence on the part of nearly everyone who handled their daughters' bodies after their deaths.

"Samara Cooks and Deleigha Gibson were different ages and had different heights, weights, and physical appearances," the Cooks' lawsuit stated. Perhaps the most noteworthy difference was that Gibson was an organ donor, whereas Cooks was not.

The girls are believed to have been improperly labeled at the crash site before being brought to the medical examiner, and the error was never caught.

It was missed by the coroner and the county medical examiner's office, even as Cooks' body was carved into, and organs were removed and harvested.

"Such unauthorized invasion of her daughter's body has caused Plaintiff, Ranada Cooks, extreme stress and anxiety," the lawsuit alleged.

In the end, the error was only caught after Cooks' mother saw her daughter's "body" at the funeral home.

The mother was both stunned and traumatized by the realization.

"When I was allowed to visit with her, I was robbed of that first chance of viewing her because I did walk in and see Ms. Deleigha," she said at a press conference Friday, which she attended with her lawyers and Gibson's parents. "It was not Samara."

Cooks also says she had previously asked several times to see her daughter's body but was denied access.

In that moment, when she was expected to see her daughter but instead saw Gibson's body laying in the casket, Renada Cooks admitted that she had a glimmer of hope for one brief moment, wondering if her daughter might somehow be alive. But ultimately, it "was false hope," she said.

The grieving mother informed the funeral home of the mix-up, but said they tried to switch the bodies back without the families knowing.

The entire incident has left both families deeply disturbed, and angry that their daughters weren't respected in their final moments before being laid to rest.

"I just really wish that they treated her with dignity," Cooks said. "Let her go out like a lady. I think they failed our girls."

Speaking with CBS This Morning on Friday, Renada Cooks added that she is "not at peace" with what happened and still struggles with it. "I feel like I haven't had a chance to mourn."

Gibson's father, Demetrius, also said that their family is struggling to move on from what happened.

"The thing I really want to say is her last wish was not fulfilled because she was an organ donor," he shared. "It was real brave of her to want to be an organ donor. For her not to get her last wish to maybe help a number of people, maybe even save someone's life, help someone out, is unfortunate."

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