A BEREAVED Worcester mum whose baby daughter's heart was removed without consent is facing fresh trauma.

Sue Harris from Birdlip Close, Brickfields, was one of 1,348 claimants who won a historic victory last March when the High Court ruled hospitals across the country had broken the law by retaining organs.

NHS bosses offered the families £3.3m compensation - meaning each would get around £2,500 each.

But now the NHS claims nearly half the families were not emotionally damaged by their ordeal and will not pay their solicitors' bills.

In a double blow, the Legal Services Commission (LSC), which funds legal aid, wants some of the money back which paid for nearly half of the families' High Court action.

Mrs Harris, 54, was devastated to learn in 2000 that doctors at Ronkswood Hospital had taken her six-day-old daughter Leanne's heart out in 1988 and later thrown it into an incinerator.

She told the Evening News she was not yet aware of the NHS' stance on not paying solicitors' bills, but revealed she had received a letter just before Christmas telling her the Legal Services Commission would be taking a proportion of the £2,800 compensation she has been told is owed to her.

Exactly how much she has yet to find out.

"It is a disgrace," she told the Evening News.

Blaming

"I feel as though they're blaming the families and we're going to be left with nothing."

She added that for the NHS to say families were not emotionally damaged enough was unbelievable.

"Our babies' organs were stolen - how more upset could you be?" she said.

"Why should solicitors' fees be paid out of the compensation money? The Government should pay their costs."

Mrs Harris said even the full compensation amount was not enough to compensate the loss families had suffered.

"Add three noughts on the end and that would have been more like it," she said.

"The families are just being stabbed in the back time and time again."