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Transplant/BODY PARTS SCANDAL
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Posted on Sat, Dec. 31, 2005
By JOY L. WOODSON
Staff Writer
http://www.thestate.com
At least 35 patients of Columbia-area hospitals might have received transplants of stolen human tissue.
The transplants are connected to a New York City case in which funeral home workers took parts from dead bodies without the families' consent.
The hospitals are calling the patients in to be tested.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended tests for HIV, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus and syphilis.
Twenty patients at Palmetto Health Richland and 12 from Palmetto Health Baptist could have received "questionable implants during surgery," spokeswoman Monya Havekost said Friday.
"It's alarming and just totally out of the realm of reality," Havekost said. "It's not anything we thought would ever happen. People are shocked."
Providence Hospital officials said three patients could have received questionable tissue.
"We were both surprised and concerned when we received this notification," Providence spokeswoman Jeanna Moffett said in a statement.
The four processing companies and distributors named by the hospitals are:
- New Jersey-based LifeCell Corp.
- Florida-based Tutogen Medical Inc.
- Florida-based Regeneration Technologies
- Minnesota-based Medtronic Inc.
Palmetto Health worked with all four companies. Providence only identified Regeneration as a company of concern.
Each of these companies bought body parts from Biomedical Tissues Services. The Food and Drug Administration has said the company might have obtained tissue without proper screening for disease.
When the FDA made the initial October announcements, Havekost said, "there was one product left on the shelves at (Palmetto Health Richland), and that was, of course, pulled right away."
The body of broadcaster Alistair Cooke, who died of cancer last year, has been connected to the investigation as well.
Investigators contacted Cooke's family after finding paperwork indicating bones had been removed and sold to Biomedical Tissues Services. The family has said that someone falsified documents, changing his cause of death to a heart attack.
"Our understanding is that the risk to these patients is very small," Moffett said. "Because patient safety is always our foremost concern, we will continue to cooperate with Regeneration Technologies in their efforts to resolve this matter."
Lexington Medical Center spokesman Chuck Wendt said no one was available to talk about whether the hospital was involved in the case. However, he said that while the hospital uses bone tissues, it does not perform transplants.
A Dorn Veteran's Administration Medical Center spokeswoman said the hospital does not work with Biomedical Tissue Services and was not notified of any problems.
Efforts to reach officials at Fort Jackson's Montcrief Hospital were unsuccessful.
It was unclear whether area hospitals would seek legal action against any of the companies.
"Right now, the only concern is patients ... and reassuring them that there's just a small percentage of a chance that anyone would have a negative outcome," said Havekost, who added that the patients would not have to be screened for cancer.
According to the FDA, affected tissue could have been implanted in patients between early 2004 and September 2005. The implicated tissues from Biomedical Tissue Services include human bone, skin and tendons.
An FDA spokeswoman said Friday the agency would not comment further on the investigation.
The Associated Press contributed.
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