A worker who deals with medically donated bodies has made the shocking claim that he found three human heads had been left on his desk after complaining about the "deplorable" working conditions.
Dale Wheatley, who has worked as a transportation coordinator at the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois for five years, often deals with bodies that have been donated to medical science and research.
However, he claimed that he has witnessed several instances of bodies decomposing prematurely as well as rats inside the body bags among other complaints.
Wheatley reported his concerns about the mishandling of bodies that had been donated, but claims he came back to work in May to find three severed heads sitting on top of a blue storage container at his desk and sage burning.
He claimed during a press conference: "The place is deplorable. It’s in shabby condition. They’re sending donors back because of mold and rot, bugs.
"There's been instances where I've pulled donors from our storing room out of the racks, and rats have chewed through the bottom of the bag, through the feet. Sometimes we do brain removals, and they’re not sewn up correctly.
"There are people that are in our cooler now that need their body parts back and they have been there for three years or more. Right now at AGA, we have a number of cremains that need to go back to the families, over hundreds of cremains, sitting at our AGA right now."
Wheatley reported his concerns but was horrified to return to his desk to find a grim tableau had allegedly been left for him to find.
"My boss walked by, I asked him why the heads were at my desk. He said they need to get back with their bodies so we can send them to cremation. I said: 'I understand that. Why are they at my desk?' and he said: 'I don't know Dale, there's a lot of strange things happening.'"
Wheatley has since filed official complaints with local and state authorities and believes that the heads were left as retaliation after he raised his concerns.
His lawyer, David Fish, told the Chicago Tribune: "I’ve never seen a situation where heads were left at somebody’s desk. That is unspeakable. Those are people’s family members. They’re not a joke … They gave their body to donate it to science."
William O'Connor, AGA's Executive Vice President, spoke out to deny that bodies were mistreated at the facility, claiming that some were received "twisted" or "emaciated".
He added that part of Wheatley's job was to handle the donated bodies and manage the "rack room" where they are stored, before delivering them to medical institutions.
Wheatley wasn't the only person to have raised a complaint about how the bodies in the AGA's care were handled, as Casey Tilden, the anatomy lab manager at Northwestern University, also sent a complaint email the day before the heads were found by Wheatley's desk.
In the email, seen by Fox 32, she claimed some of the bodies she received from the organization were unusable because "flies were crawling on the bodies, that the limbs contained mold and rot, and that its students had become sick after being exposed to the bodies during the course of their studies."
Tilden added: "There are a handful of donors that were recently delivered with feet and hands that show signs of decomposition."
Wheatley said he had informed Tilden that the bodies were not being properly embalmed as the process requires them to be weighed for the correct formula to be used but the AGA did not own a scale, meaning they were "eyeballing" how much should be used, meaning the weight wasn't accurate and was "leading to those conditions".
He also claimed that other universities have also complained about the bodies provided to them.
Wheatley - who still works for the AGA - has been using his paid time off to take time out from work since May 30 and says he won't return until he feels better.
He told the Tribune: "I’m beat up. This job has severely weighed on me over the years. I can’t even sleep. Just the only thing I can think about, running it over and over in my head. I can’t believe this is happening."
Fox 32 reports that Wheatley is not planning to take legal action against his employer but hopes the complaints spur them on to "clean up its act" instead.
