A WHITEFIELD woman has finally been granted an independent investigation into why the brain of her late husband was removed during a post mortem without her knowledge.

Mrs Elaine Isaacs (56) only learned the truth after reviewing medical papers in 1999, 12 years after her husband Cyril's suicide in 1987. As reported in the Bury Times in February, her worst fears were raised when she came across a letter from her GP to Manchester University which stated that in cases such as her husband's, who was suffering mental health problems at the time, it was common practice for the university to take post mortem brain samples.

The shocking news was later confirmed in a message left on her telephone answering machine by a pathologist at the Bolton Royal Hospital.

She said: "I was hysterical. For Jewish families post mortems are forbidden but because of the circumstances of Cyril's death we had to agree to one. But to learn they had taken his brain was terrible.

"I nearly dropped dead on the spot."

Mrs Isaacs enrolled the help of Bury South Mr Ivan Lewis MP and Health Minister Alan Milburn promised to look into the case.

The Department of Health has now informed Mrs Isaacs, who has a 31-year-old son Austin, that they are conducting an independent investigation into Cyril's case.

Mrs Isaacs, who had a meeting with chief medical officer Professor Liam Donaldson in May, said: "It has been a long, hard struggle. They must feel that on the evidence I have produced it warrants an inquiry. "This should not have happened and the inquiry will highlight an area that has not really been addressed before, one which involves the removal of organs from adults as well as children and highlights the cases that occur in the community rather than in hospitals." Professor Donaldson wrote to Mrs Isaacs, who ran a decorative lighting business with her late husband, earlier this month.

He said: "The issues need to be investigated in their own right and not simply as part of the work being carried out by the Retained Organs Commission, as it raises a wide range of concerns about health and coronial policy and practice.

"All the Ministers in the Department of Health with a portfolio interest in your case have now considered it in detail. All are agreed that the issues and concerns raised warrant an independent investigation which will publish its findings in full."

Mrs Isaacs added: "My husband's death was reduced to one lousy line in a mortuary register with no regard to his medical records or our religion. I hope there will be recommendations that come out of the investigation."