Surgeon Accused in Death of Patient to Get Organs

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

On a winter night in 2006, a disabled and brain damaged man named Ruben Navarro was wheeled into an operating room at a hospital here. By most accounts, Mr. Navarro, 25, was near death, and doctors hoped that he might sustain other lives by donating his kidneys and liver.

But what happened to Mr. Navarro quickly went from the potentially life-saving to what law enforcement officials say was criminal. In what transplant experts believe is the first such case in the country, prosecutors have charged the surgeon, Dr. Hootan C. Roozrokh, with prescribing excessive and improper doses of drugs, apparently in an attempt to hasten Mr. Navarro’s death to retrieve his organs sooner.

A preliminary hearing begins here on Wednesday, with Dr. Roozrokh facing three felony counts relating to Mr. Navarro’s treatment as a donor. At the heart of the case is whether Dr. Roozrokh, who studied at a transplant fellowship program at the Stanford University School of Medicine, was pursuing organs at any cost or had become entangled in a web of misunderstanding about a lesser-used harvesting technique known as “donation after cardiac death.”

Dr. Roozrokh has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer said the charges were the result of overzealous prosecutors. But the case has sent a shudder through the tight-knit field of transplant surgeons — if convicted on all counts, Dr. Roozrokh could face eight years in prison — while also worrying donation advocacy groups that organ donors could be frightened away.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/27transplant.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

---

Wow - this one could have some implications! From the story it certainly looks like this surgeon stepped over the ethical line.

[pinto]

1. A fairly local story of sorts for me, I live in the area. It's had some twists and turns,

from standard operating procedures in the hospital, to the experience of staff and the actions of the specialist team, which included this physician. Apparently, organ transplant teams come in to a hospital when there is an organ donation pending and decisions are made relatively quickly when time - to keep the organs viable for transplant - is a factor. There's some concern about informed consent prior to the decision, who made medical decisions in the ICU and what role this doctor played in the process.

Much more complicated than I ever assumed.

[rasputin1952]

3. I remember that 'harvesters' were flown i tho the hospital I

worked at when a donor became available. there was a ton of paperwork, decisions being quickly made, the door being taken to the ER, the body beoing taken away for further work if deemd a "complete" donor...but the thought never entered anyone's mind that somone would hasten a death nto harvest organs. The whole situation saves many lives, and I am a donor myself, and applaud anyone who is willing to do this...but I want to die on my own...:)

[Missy M]

8. Being a donor does save many lives.....

my husband died in October 2007 and it was sudden, he was brain dead. He had decided to be a donor many years before his death. Not everyone who has pledged to be a donor can have it happen because it all depends on the manner of death. It is a very complicated matter. In New York State they are very strict about when someone can be declared dead, two tests are taken 6 hours apart and both must be passed. He was kept alive artificially to keep the organs viable for transplant. That is were it gets complicated and confusing. His kidneys, liver, corneas, bones, skin and tissue were taken. His kidneys and liver were transplanted that evening and the next morning. I hope the patients who received the transplants are alive and well. In my husbands case it was hopeless because he was brain dead and nothing was going to change that. He would have lived about a week on machines but that was it. I decided to become a donor, if possible, after going through it with my husband. We were able to fulfill his wishes and help many other people to live on. It was very gratifying and made his sudden death not seem so senseless to us. I do applaud you for being a donor.

[rasputin1952]

9. Thanks...but since I carry the Hep A,B & C anti-bodies, all my

organs can be used for is study. But if they can come up w/even the idea for a cure for something, it is well worth it. I can't even donate blood anymore, something that really bothers me, especially w/our men and women being shot up in the Middle East.

[Lautremont]

2. I just watched "Coma" two nights ago.

Now this! Craziness. Was there a creepy warehouse with coma victims hanging on wires?

[rasputin1952]

4. Weird movie...

:scared:

[lonestarnot]

5. " ...experts believe is the first such case in the country"

ugh hugh, that has been pursued. Hmmmmf. Prollee happens alot more than we would care to think about when a richie needs a liver.

[flashl]

10. Not the first in the sense of ethics inquiry of 'Presumed Consent Policies for Organ Donation'. nt

[mac2]

6. Like in China our lives mean little any more.

I have not become a organ donor because I fear just this. My husband can donate my organs if he so desires when they are sure I can't be helped and die (dead...very dead).

I read an article that China harvests organs and Israel sells them on the open market. That is a trade deal which the WTO should ban. By the way has anyone ever wondered why the WTO never went after Enron, etc.? What type of organizations is that anyway...one for lawless people?

[flashl]

11. Same is happening here in large minority metro areas.

Harvesting Organs From Silence

Imagine the government deciding that, with or without your consent your organs will be donated upon your death. Sound like a farfetched "Big Brother" scenario? Think again.

In 26 states, doctors already can obtain organs for transplantation and research with presumed consent. Presumed consent enables the legal removal of tissues and organs ‑ such as corneas and kidneys ‑ without prior permission of the deceased or his family.

Few people in the affected 26 states know about the law.Fewer realize that there is a burgeoning movement to make presumed consent widespread . It has been recently adopted by Brazil, Italy, Poland and Switzerland. Closer to home, it was recently adopted in parts of several states, including Texas. Presumed consent has been defeated in debate on the floor of the American Medical Association, but in its medical journal, The Lancet, medical experts have proposed adopting it as a policy.

Howard University Medical

[mac2]

12. Thanks for the information

Our state, IL, recently said a signature on your license is on longer needed. Another form is required. I thought something was up.

[Doc_Technical]

7. King Crimson

Cat's foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia's poison door
21st century schizoid man
Blood rack barbed wire
Politician's funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
21st century schizoid man
Death seed blind man greed
Poets' starving children bleed
Nothing he's got he really needs
21st century schizoid man