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Stolen body parts linked to patients' illnesses
Lawsuits claim tissue transplants were infected with viruses, other germs
 | Assistant District Attorney Josh Hanshaft displays an X-ray of an exhumed corpse showing that PVC plumbing pipes were inserted where the bones once were at a press conference in February. Michael Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., was charged along with three other men with secretly carving up corpses and selling the parts. |
Louis Lanzano / AP file |
NEW YORK - At least a dozen people who had routine operations claim they caught deadly viruses and other germs from body parts stolen from corpses in a ghoulish scandal that has sent hundreds of people for tests.
The patients tested positive for germs that cause AIDS, hepatitis or syphilis after receiving tissue transplants, according to their lawyers and court records.
Lawsuits have been filed for two Midwestern men, one in Nebraska and one in Ohio. Both claim they caught a hepatitis virus from the tissue implanted in back and spine operations — a contention that lawyers acknowledge will be difficult to prove.
Lawyers for both men say they know of no other factors that would put their clients at risk for hepatitis.
“It pretty much turned my world upside down,” said one of the patients, Ned Jackson, 49, of Omaha, Neb.
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The Associated Press talked to lawyers representing at least a dozen other clients who say medical tests show they have the AIDS or hepatitis virus or syphilis bacteria — all of which can be acquired from infected tissue. Those suits have not yet been filed and the lawyers are continuing to investigate their claims.
So far, about two dozen lawsuits have been filed in federal courts across the country, most seeking class-action status for hundreds of people who were implanted with tissues that the U.S. government recalled.
Company accused of stealing body parts
A New Jersey company, Biomedical Tissue Services, is accused of failing to gain consent to take bones, tendons, ligaments, skin and other tissue from cadavers. The most famous example involved the corpse of Alistair Cooke, the longtime host of the PBS series “Masterpiece Theater.” Cooke died of cancer at age 95, and his leg bones were removed and shipped to tissue processors for use in medical procedures.
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Louis Lanzano / AP Dainis Zeltins, left, looks on as his attorney Sanford Rubenstein speaks March 17 at a news conference in Brooklyn, N.Y. The body of Zeltins' deceased brother Richard was harvested for parts even though he was supposed to be cremated. |
The owner of BTS and three others have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. BTS has since closed. At least 8,000 people received BTS tissue, according to one of the tissue distributors.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said the chance of getting a disease from BTS tissue is low. But plaintiff’s lawyers are challenging that assertion.
“There has never been a widespread dissemination of recalled tissue ... What’s happened here presents a whole new scenario,” said Philadelphia lawyer Larry R. Cohan, who’s representing about 130 people who say they got BTS tissue.
Steve Fogle thought the risk was low when he had spinal fusion surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati on Aug. 29, 2005.
When the Blanchester, Ohio, man got a letter dated Dec. 9, 2005, from his doctor explaining the tissue that was implanted in his neck and spine might carry an infectious disease, he didn’t think much about it.
Diagnosis of hepatitis C
The letter and other documents explained that the tissue had been “terminally sterilized” and stated repeatedly the risk of infection was “low.” The letter also said tissue had been recalled due to “improper documentation” and there were no reports of “adverse reactions.”
Fogle, 41, felt reassured and put off getting tested for hepatitis, syphilis and HIV as recommended by the FDA.
Two months later, Fogle, who is married and has no tattoos or history of intravenous drug use — risk factors for hepatitis C — learned the true circumstances of the recall after watching a TV news report describing the macabre scandal.
The news from his test in Milford, Ohio, was not good: He was infected with Hepatitis C, according to his affidavit.
A series of follow-up tests with his family doctor and a liver specialist confirmed the results. His wife’s tests have been negative.
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