Body Part Scam May Touch Local Hospitals
Hospital Is Warned of Possibly Irregular Tissue
Lebanon, NH -- Six transplant patients at Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital received human tissue that was processed by a company whose owner has been charged with stealing body parts, state and hospital officials confirmed yesterday.
The six patients were notified by certified letter from the Lebanon hospital in early December that the tissue they received in transplants may not have been properly screened for infectious diseases, APD spokeswoman Jan Thibodeau said.
Harry Dorman III, the APD president and CEO, said last night that while the hospital had notified patients of the FDA's concern about improperly screened tissue, it realized only yesterday morning that a supplier charged with trafficking in stolen body parts was involved.
“We weren't told of that. … We were just told of the potential infection,” Dorman said. “We acquired it through our supply chain, which was two steps away from that company.”
Two of the six patients asked to be screened, and “as far as we know, the results were negative,” said Thibodeau, who said she could not identify the patients and could not offer any details beyond that the patients underwent orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery.
Orthopedic surgery concerns the skeletal system, and muscles, joints and ligaments. Neurosurgery at APD can range from treatment of pituitary tumors to peripheral nerve problems, she said.
Alice Peck Day and other hospitals across the country were notified in October of a tissue recall from Regeneration Technologies Inc. of Alachua, Fla., a vendor which had received human bone, skin and tendons from Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd. of Fort Lee, N.J.
“The tissue was recovered by BTS from human donors who may not have met FDA donor eligibility requirements and who may not have been properly screened for certain infectious diseases,” including HIV, hepatitis B and C and syphilis, the Food and Drug Administration said in an Oct. 26, 2005, news release.
BTS owner Michael Mastromarino and three other men, including a Brooklyn, N.Y., mortician, were charged last month with conspiring to take bones, skin and other body parts from cadavers without the permission of the families in an alleged scheme between 2001 and 2005, according to The Associated Press.
One of the bodies may have been that of renowned British-born journalist Alistair Cooke, his daughter, a minister in East Montpelier, Vt., revealed last weekend.
APD has returned all the unused tissue it had that was subject to the recall and determined that six patients who underwent surgery between early 2004 and September 2005 may also have been affected, Thibodeau said.
The FDA news release in October said that the health risks for transplant patients are probably “low because the tissues were routinely processed using methods that help to reduce the risk of infectious diseases; however, the actual infectious risk is unknown.”
Although APD learned of the recall in October, it did not notify the patients until early December. Thibodeau said research was required to determine who was carrying the tissue in question, and the hospital wanted to allow the patients' physicians to contact them first.
“After the research that we had conducted, we identified the six patients and are confident that there were only six patients,” she said.
And Dorman, asked whether APD was concerned about a potential lawsuit, also said there has been no indication of any health problems associated with the tissue in question.
“There's concern, but there's not been any indication that the tissue was contaminated or infected,” he said.
“I can't emphasize enough, if anyone feels that they should have been contacted and have not been, they should contact their physician, but we are satisfied that those who were affected have been notified and they were given the opportunity for screening,” Thibodeau said.
Greg Moore, a spokesman for the state health department, said four patients from Elliot Hospital and Catholic Medical Center in Manchester also received the suspect tissue.
But he said state officials are satisfied that all affected transplant patients have been notified.
“If you have not heard from your provider, it means from the best of our ability, it is not the tissue from this particular place, so these folks should not worry,” Moore said.
Initially, Catholic Medical Center confirmed that one of its patients received questionable tissue through a supply chain that included BTS.
Earlier, three people said they were notified they got questionable tissue through the same channels during operations at Elliot.
The state health department set up a hotline -- (603) 271-4496 -- for transplant patients to call with questions.
One of the patients, Cindy Rossiter of Brookline, N.H., said she is bothered that a small bone implanted in her neck may have been diseased. She's been tested once, with negative results, but wants to be tested again.
“I'll be real blunt. The first thing I wanted to do if it would have been possible was to take the bone out of my neck,” she told WMUR-TV.
She said she was told in December the bone came from BTS, which sent it to Regeneration Technologies for processing.
Elliot officials said two of its three patients have tested negative for disease. The third patient is scheduled for testing. Catholic Medical Center said it has followed up with the patient who received a transplant.
The FDA said it has notified all doctors who may have used the questionable tissue and bones.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
http://www.vnews.com/0
3092006/2951164.htm
Posted by Editor at March 9, 2006 12:46 PM
