BOSTON (AP) – The state medical examiner’s office lost the heart of a Quincy man, forcing his family to bury him without it, according to a lawyer and a pathologist hired by the man’s family.

A state pathologist conducted an autopsy on the body of Charles T. Sylva in December 2000 after he died in the custody of Quincy police. But when a pathologist hired by the family examined the body six days later, the heart was missing, according to family attorney Stephen Hrones.

“They lost the heart,” Hrones said. “They don’t know what they are doing over there.”

The case comes as Attorney General Thomas Reilly investigates allegations that the office sent the wrong set of eyeballs for testing as authorities probed the death of an infant as a possible case of shaken-baby syndrome.

Sylva’s family hired acclaimed medical examiner Dr. Michael M. Baden to examine the body. He said two physicians were present when he examined the body and noted the absence of a heart.

The state medical examiner’s office denies that the heart was lost. “Our records clearly demonstrate that … Mr. Sylva’s body and heart were returned to the family,” spokeswoman Christine Cole said.

The heart was in the body when Baden examined it, she said.

The records are private and cannot be released, she said.

Major organs are routinely removed for examination during autopsies, but are usually put back before the body is returned to the family.

Sylva’s family has filed notice of a lawsuit against the city of Quincy.

Hrones said that police who arrested Sylva for breaking and entering on Dec. 17, 2000 should have recognized he was in a psychotic state and moved him to a medical facility.

Hrones said he plans to challenge the conclusion of state medical examiner, Dr. Leonard Atkins, who ruled that Sylva died of cocaine intoxication.

Baden determined the cause of death to be “a medically untreated violent and prolonged acute psychosis with exhaustion,” rejecting Atkins’ conclusion because of the relatively low level of cocaine in Sylva’s system.

“The medical examiner missed the cause of death, and this supports our argument that the medical examiner’s office is not reliable,” Hrones said.

Two men locked up with Sylva said he repeatedly smashed his head against the wall and floor and jumped from the toilet seat in an apparent effort to harm himself, Hrones said. He died within two hours.

Atkins is retired and was not available for comment.

Baden said Atkins sent him a picture of the heart returned to the body, but it was just a small piece weighing about five grams of a 425-gram heart.

The condition of the heart is not a central element in the dispute over the cause of death, Hrones said.