Organ Transplant Scandal Shocks Germany
Two stories about Organ transplant/organ donor issues, both out of Germany.
Falsified Test Results
A doctor is suspected of tampering with his patients' records to push them to the top of the transplant list.
Germany is known for top-notch healthcare, but in recent weeks, the country's medical community has been deeply shaken by an organ transplant scandal that is fueling public distrust of doctors and the donor system.
A surgeon identified as Dr. Aiman O. is suspected of fraudulently manipulating dozens of his patients' test results, making them appear sicker than they were to get them liver transplants more quickly -- and possibly putting them ahead of people who more desperately needed them. The case first emerged in late July at the University Medical Center Göttingen, in the northern German state of Lower Saxony, from where the senior physician has been suspended since November for allegedly tampering with some 23 transplant cases. A gastroenterologist suspected of involvement has also been suspended.
This week, the scandal spread to include Dr. O.'s previous job at the University Hospital Regensburg in Bavaria between 2003 and 2008. There he is suspected of manipulating another 23 organ transplant cases. The hospital's surgical director there has also been suspended for possibly failing to properly supervise hospital activities, though he is not suspected of direct involvement.
But indications that the manipulation may have continued at the University Hospital Regensburg even after Dr. O.'s departure emerged on Friday, when daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported between 2008 and 2009 the number of liver transplants skyrocketed by 40 percent, from 48 to 69.
"Such an increase is considered unusual," the paper wrote. "Even Germany's largest transplant center only transplants around 100 livers per year."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/organ-transplant-scandal-shocks-germany-a-848016.html
Second Story:
Desperation, Greed and the Global Organ Trade
She was a poor Russian immigrant in Israel, he was a well-off German businessman. The case of Vera and Walter reveals a thriving illegal trade in kidneys and other organs -- and shows how it is fueled by desperation.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-illegal-trade-in-organ-is-fueled-by-desperation-and-growing-a-847473.html