Several family members have described how the situation in the hospitals compounded their distress. Mr Devonside went from one hospital to the other in search of his son Christopher, seeing devastating scenes but not finding him.
Trevor Hicks attended the match with his then wife, Jenni, and two daughters, Sarah and Victoria. Mrs Hicks had a ticket for the North Stand; Mr Hicks and their daughters had tickets for the West Terrace, but he went into Pen 1 while Sarah and Victoria went to Pen 3. Both Sarah and Victoria were killed in the disaster.
After the match, Mr Hicks travelled from Hillsborough Stadium to the Northern General in an ambulance with Victoria, who was pronounced dead shortly after arriving. He was accompanied by a police constable. There had not been room for Sarah in the ambulance, and Mr Hicks had been faced with the awful dilemma of having to leave her on the pitch, on the assurance that she would be placed in the next ambulance.
A short time after they arrived at the hospital, the PC informed him that Victoria had died. Mr Hicks then began to search the hospital for Sarah, who he assumed had arrived soon after. After an hour and a half of searching and waiting, he was taken to the section of the hospital where those who had died were being attended to and gave a description of Sarah to the police officers on duty there. He explained that the officers told him there was a young unidentified female and brought out a watch to show him. He thought it may have belonged to Sarah and said that after about 10 or 15 minutes he was taken to the hospital mortuary to identify the young woman. He expected this to be Sarah, but in fact, it turned out to be Victoria.
He said that he returned to the main hospital building for another half hour or so, during which time he was trying to find both Jenni and Sarah. He was told that some casualties had been taken to the Royal Hallamshire, but he could not get through by telephone. At about 6pm, he was taken to the Royal Hallamshire, where he gave Sarah’s description to staff who checked to see if she had been admitted.
At about 8pm, he returned to the Northern General where he was reunited with his wife. He was appalled to learn that she had been told Victoria had died but had been refused permission to see her. He explained that his wife was distraught when he told her he had been unable to find Sarah. Mr and Mrs Hicks later identified both their daughters at the gymnasium.
Dolores Steele went to the Northern General with her husband Leslie in search of their son Philip, who died in the disaster. In a statement made in 2014, she recalled that on her arrival at the hospital, she gave her details to a member of staff and was told to sit down and wait. She said that a man in a white coat stood on a table and read out the descriptions of ten people who had died, and that the penultimate description referred to a person in possession of a signet ring engraved with initials. Philip wore such a ring, but the initials were given in the wrong order. She insisted that she was allowed to see the ring, and a police constable went to get it. Mrs Steele said: “I knew it was Philip’s ring before they took it out of the bag”.
She was told her son was in the hospital mortuary and the police constable took her there. They sat outside and waited for what she believed was over an hour, only to be informed that her son was no longer at the hospital, and that he had been taken back to Hillsborough Stadium. She commented: “It just all seemed to be hopeless”.
The officer involved had no idea that this was happening and was hugely embarrassed and apologetic. Mr and Mrs Steele identified Philip at the gymnasium later that evening.
