A helpline in Oxford has been inundated with calls from families wanting to know what happened to relatives' organs after post-mortem examinations.

More than 350 calls have been made to health staff after it was revealed that Oxford hospitals have the second highest number of stored organs in the country behind Liverpool's Alder Hey children's hospital.

A total of 4,400 brains has built up over the past 30 years at the Radcliffe Infirmary for teaching and research. About 350 of those belonged children. Linda Baker, emergency planning officer for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust, said between 70 and 80 per cent of callers were inquiring about the organs of children and babies.

Victims: Paul and Barbie Clynes whose three-week-old son, Marc, was buried without his brain

Chief executive Mr David Highton said the trust wanted to be completely open in its approach to concerned family members and was advising them it would take two to three weeks to find out what had happened to their loved ones' organs.

He said: "We are relieved that such a large number of relatives have come forward.

"It would have been more worrying if we had had only 20 calls - that would mean we were not getting our message through.

"We do accept that when some of them phone us they are distressed, upset and probably very annoyed.

"The very last thing we want to do is hide things and hold things back.

"We apologise for the distress and we want to rectify it where we can. We can only do that by being really open."

Experienced hospital staff are manning the phone line in shifts, with three people available to pick up calls and take details at any time between 9am and 10pm.

The helpline was set up on Tuesday but only received six calls up until 6pm. But the hotline was swamped with around 60 calls in the evening (Tuesday) when the extent of the national organ retention scandal became known.

Mrs Baker, emergency planning officer, emphasised those taking the calls were "listening to people", and allowing them to "get out what they need to get out" before collating the information the hospital needed.

She said: "Talking about babies is emotive. People have been calm and happy with our responses.

"I personally have not come across someone who has gone away unhappy with our responses."

She said the call centre had been busy all day yesterday, but she did not think the demand had stopped people getting through.

"It has been continuous all day. As soon as someone puts the phone down, within the next minute or so it is ringing again," she said.

The oldest inquiry had dated back to 1972, but the majority were from the 1980s and 1990s, Mrs Baker said.

**The helpline number is 01865 222177.