BERMUDA authorities have this week ignored renewed pleas from a UK coroner for a full public inquest into the death of local resident Norman Palmer ¿ and the subsequent theft of his organs.

Despite the involvement of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London, the investigation is at a standstill due to a lack of co-operation from the Bermuda Police Service and the Bermuda Coroner's Office.

Mr. Palmer's sister Marion Bishop is now calling on Government House to intervene as promised, and press for accountability ¿ and for Bermudians to support her family in the quest to find out what exactly happened to Mr. Palmer's body parts.

"The people of Bermuda generally haven't been in an uproar about this," Ms Bishop told the Mid-Ocean News this week.

"How do they know their family's bodies and organs haven't been treated the same way? This has happened before ¿ they've just been caught this time. No one is ever held accountable in Bermuda. You can hack someone's body up, and you will not be held accountable."

Mr. Palmer (pictured) died at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in April after emergency room doctors failed to perform a live-saving tracheostomy due to to a lack of equipment.

During a post-mortem in England, the UK coroner made a grim discovery: not only had the tracheostomy not been performed as reported in the Bermuda autopsy, but a number of Mr. Palmer's organs and body parts were missing. It was revealed to the Mid-Ocean News this week that, in addition to these stolen organs, Mr. Palmer's veins were stripped from his body.

UK Coroner Tony Williams has been in contact with Bermuda authorities ever since, sending the latest in a long line of requests for information to the local Coroner's Officer on November 21. In this most recent letter, Mr. Williams asks police liaison Sgt. Adrian Cook to "please note and confirm to the Coroner that I certainly believe the circumstances of Mr. Palmer's death warrant a public inquest being held in Bermuda", where "all relevant witnesses" will be able to testify.

On the same date last week, Mr. Williams wrote to Mr. Palmer's sister in the UK, noting that he was powerless to continue investigations without word from Bermudian authorities.

As the Mid-Ocean News went to press, Sgt. Cook had ignored this latest call for a full public inquest into the disappearance of Mr. Palmer's organs following his death.

Among the body parts still unaccounted for seven months later are his trachea, larynx, oesophagus, stomach, thyroid, prostate, bladder, and parts of his intestines. Also missing: Mr. Palmer's brain stem and his cerebellum.

Ms Bishop, Mr. Palmer's Bermuda-based sister, has yet to hear from KEMH chief executive David Hill, who she calls a "piss-poor CEO".

She blames Mr. Hill for allowing Bermuda's ambulances to operate without appropriate equipment or properly qualified paramedics.

Ms Bishop and her family believe Mr. Palmer would have lived if a tracheostomy had been performed either in the ambulance or in the emergency room at KEMH. Neither had the cricothyroidotomy pack necessary for a tracheostomy, and the EMTs manning Bermuda's ambulances do not have the required training to perform such a procedure.

"What kind of CEO allows ambulances that are more like meat wagons to operate, without trained paramedics and with no tracheostomy pack in the ER?" Ms Bishop asked.

"What else isn't there in the hospital that's needed?"

Ms Bishop added that the KEMH pathologist who conducted her brother's autopsy wrote only that the 57-year-old husband and father's respiratory system was "unremarkable", failing to note substantial scar tissue in his throat thanks to a shotgun injury in his youth. It was only after being told the UK coroner would be intervening that KEMH conducted a second post-mortem, in which "pellets" in his throat were noted. Ms Bishop believes her brother's survival, at age 16, of bullets to the neck serves as a greater indictment of KEMH's incompetence.

"Forty years ago, a cottage hospital in rural England saved Norman's life, without any of the technology we have today," she said.

"How ironic that they saved his life, and this lot have completely disregarded it. His GP failed him, the ambulance failed him, the ER, pathologist, morgue and undertaker all failed him."

In the months following her brother's death, Ms Bishop ¿ backed by Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson ¿ has pushed for answers on the lack of tracheostomy equipment and dearth of qualified paramedics in Bermuda's health system. She recalls a conversation between her sister and Dr. Edward Schultz, the director of KEMH's emergency department, in which he defended his hospital's record.

"Dr. Schultz said they've been trying to get paramedics for years, but the Government wouldn't pay as it cost too much," Ms Bishop said.

"He then told my sister Heather that they only lose one person a year due to ambulances. Well, that one person was my brother."

Ms Bishop has yet to hear from anyone at KEMH regarding her brother's missing organs.

In last week's Mid-Ocean News, a hospital spokesperson maintained that "all organs were returned with the deceased to the funeral home in line with BHB' s policy".

Ms Bishop believes that statement to be patently false, and questions the hospital's role in her brother's death.

"You're given to understand all your life that doctors are there to take care of you," she said. "The minute the ambulance picked Norman up, and all the way to the hospital, and all the way through, he was in their care. If a hospital doesn't have the equipment to save his life, and if he had no other choice and no other hospital, is it considered murder? The only thing the hospital has ever told me since is to get out and don't come back. It is such a waste. "

As the Mid-Ocean News went to press, Government House confirmed its continued involvement in the investigation.

"We continue to take a close interest in this case and are in regular contact with the Bermuda Police Service and others as necessary," said a spokesperson.

The Bermuda Hospitals Board issued a statement to the Mid-Ocean News claiming that appropriate equipment for a tracheostomy is "always available in emergency and operating rooms".

A BHB spokesman added that the board is "looking forward to the coroner' s response".

"Unfortunately, we are very limited by what we can say publicly about the case until this takes place," she said.

" We have been respectful to our duties of confidentiality and due process in the face of what we believe to be inaccuracies and unsubstantiated allegations.

"We hope the coroner is able to review the case as soon as possible as he will be able to provide an independent review of all the facts."