The body of the wrong man was cremated — and a dead woman nearly dissected by medical students without her family’s permission — because of goofs by the city Medical Examiner’s Office, sources told The Post.
The blunders are just the latest embarrassment for the agency, which is now in the cross hairs of a city Department of Investigation probe into possible malfeasance.
“There’s a problem day-to-day with competence. There is confusion and chaos at the top,’’ said one frustrated worker.
In the case of the mistaken cremation, the ME’s Office received the body of Nathan T. Young, a 63-year-old black man from Harlem, around the same time it also received that of a white man named Andrew Young, sources said.
Andrew Young’s family asked for his body to be sent to a funeral home for cremation — but the ME’s Office allegedly sent Nathan’s, instead.
In the case of 85-year-old Aura Ballesteros of The Bronx, her corpse was mistakenly shipped to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine earlier this month, embalmed, and nearly used for research by students.
“The mistake was quickly realized, and [Ballesteros’ body] was returned to OCME within 36 hours as per the family’s wishes. No dissection occurred,” said Barbara Butcher, the ME’s chief of staff.
As The Post reported last month, staffers also lost the body of a 71-year-old woman — forcing them to fruitlessly exhume at least 300 corpses looking for her.