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Contaminated Bone and Tissue Transplants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thousands of Americans have received bone and other tissue transplants that are potentially contaminated and can lead to AIDS, syphilis, hepatitis, and other dangers. If
you have been told that you received potentially contaminated body
tissue in connection with a surgery or other medical procedure, and
you want to make a claim for a disease you have or might develop in
the future, contact us. Call us toll free at 800.822.5667, email Attorney
James C. Peterson or send us an information
form. |
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The Story Behind this Scandal |
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New York district attorney has indicted Michael Mastromarino, the owner
of New Jersey-based Biomedical Tissue Services Company, and three other
employees of the company on 122 charges ghoulish crimes that include
taking body parts from cadavers in funeral homes without legal consent
and without screening for disease. In some cases the dead person's bones
were replaced with PVC plastic plumbing pipe, so the absence of bones
would not be noticed when the bodies were viewed at funeral homes. |
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Mastromarino's company sold the pilfered parts to other companies that distributed them for use in transplants that occurred at hospitals and medical facilities nationwide. Unlike organs such as lungs, hearts and kidneys, which are handled only by a network of nonprofit groups, tissues - including bones, heart valves, skin and ligaments - can be processed for profit. The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) forbids body-harvesting firms from cutting up cancerous and diseased corpses. In all cases, harvesters are supposed to screen cadavers based on age and cause of death, and harvested tissue is tested for disease and treated with antiviral or antibacterial agents. |
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Plastic Pipes Shown on Lower Body X-Ray |
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FDA is concerned that the parts could be infected with the AIDS virus,
syphilis and hepatitis, diseases the government says were never tested
for by Biomedical Tissue Service. "We know that they obtained these
bodies in a fraudulent way and off the scale of acceptable practice,"
FDA spokesman Stephen King said. However, the FDA has refused to tell
the public how many patients how many people received BTS tissue or
how many have ailments that might be linked to suspect tissue. "At
this time the agency is not releasing any specifics of that investigation
in order to preserve the integrity of that investigation," King
wrote in an e-mail. An FDA agency advisory says the "actual infectious risk is unknown." Doctors and hospitals nationwide are warning patients at risk. Hundreds of very live Americans are walking around with pieces of the wrong dead people inside of them. In a typical letter, a Ft. Wayne neurosurgeon said, "Word has come to us from this company that the bone graft implant that was used in your case may have not been processed in accordance with required FDA and CDC requirements." The
scope of a scandal involving body parts plundered from corpses has
begun to emerge, with one company alone saying it has distributed
thousands of pieces of human tissue that authorities fear could be
tainted with disease. Tissue distributor Medtronic says at least 8,000
pieces from Biomedical Tissue Services "were implanted and the
remainder is being recalled from the field and storage," "This is of great concern to us. It attacks the trust that people have in the system," said Robert Rigney, executive director of the American Association of Tissue Banks. The group accredits and inspects the 91 member tissue banks that account for most of the tissue used for transplants in the United States. Biomedical Tissue Services was not an accredited member of the American Association of Tissue Banks, nor did the company ever apply. It is unclear why processors and distributors did business with an unaccredited supplier. Our plan: 1. We are accepting all cases where the person has been notified of potentially contaminated tissue. 2. We are not accepting any cases where the person has not been notified. 3. Lawsuits will be filed in the jurisdiction most favorable to the individual client, and this could be New Jersey, Florida, Minnesota, or the person's home state or state where the procedure was done. 4. Regeneration Technologies has filed for an MDL, which if granted (likely) will mean that all federal court cases in the country will be consolidated in some presently unknowable location sometime in 2006. 5.
We cannot offer an opinion on the value of any claim or type of claim
at this point. There is too much that no one knows yet, and variations
in the laws of different states can make a case have a different value
(or no value) in one state compared to another. |
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For More Information or to discuss making a claim for injury or death related to Contaminated Body Parts, please Contact us toll free at 800.822.5667 or Email us at jcpeterson@hpcbd.com or Complete our Information Form |
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