"Body parts harvested in N.C. recalled " Feds Tried To Keep it Secret!

[leftchick]

Between the tainted food, air, water, drugs and now Body Parts! This country has gone to hell....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060823/ap_on_he_me/body_parts

WASHINGTON - A leading medical firm has quietly recalled hundreds of human tissue products destined for transplants around the nation that were supplied by a North Carolina body parts broker believed to have a tainted history.

The broker used an unsterile embalming room to carve up dozens of corpses to procure tissue, a Raleigh funeral home director said Tuesday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration shut down the body broker on Friday, but refuses to say how many people may have received potentially risky tissue.

It is the second scandal in less than a year in the booming tissue transplant industry. Cadaver tissue is used in more than a million transplants each year in such routine operations as back surgery and knee repairs. While such donated tissue does tremendous good, it is also little regulated, a three-month Associated Press investigation found earlier this year.

<snip>

Federal authorities kept the North Carolina episode quiet until late last Friday, when the FDA shut down Donor Referral Services of Raleigh, N.C. The FDA said the company, run by Philip Guyett, had "serious deficiencies" in its processing, donor screening and record-keeping. The government accused him of altering records to overlook such problems as cancer or drug use by the deceased donor.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. The Feds keep their mouth shut about far too many things.

They ensure that the private sector will continue their abuses, when they don't report what they know.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. They keep quiet because of National Security (moment of awed reverence)

Don't you know how much damage Islamo-fascist terrorists could do to this country if they knew how greedy businesses were using diseased corpses to line their pockets?

TERRA! TERRA! TERRA!

Why do you hate America so much?

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. There's another reason why they don't report it.

Because the government or government officials may have had some involvement with the private sector's abuses, and they might be sued for whatever damages that might be incurred from negligence or illegalities.

It's the reason why State Attorney Generals are useless to the public. It's their job to represent the local government against the citizens who bring charges against them.

[marions ghost]

19. No Truer Words ever spoken

:applause:

State Atty Generals are useless to the public. They protect govt and private sector abuses against the public.

There is often no recourse for the consumer. Ralph Nader isn't gonna do it for us, guys. Whatever improvements were made in consumer protection have been steadily eroded by Rethuglicans over the last 2 decades. The public has no idea how vulnerable they really are.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. I kept hitting this deadend over and over again when I made

public records requests and kept digging up as many questionable activities and procedures as I cared to read about. I stopped when I ran out of space to store the stuff. No city in any state would survive a citizen audit. It's just that there's no point to doing one, because there's no where to go with the information. No way to stop it.

[marions ghost]

23. Right!

Same here. There are no 'channels' for citizen complaint. Forget the legal system. Public trust is being abused at the local and state levels, which is how it is tolerated at Federal level.

Corruption through and through our society at every level. No prosecution of real crimes. Abuses of all kinds of laws and regulations. "Leaders" who are in it only for personal gain.

It's discouraging.

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. Well, now there's two of us who see the issue clearly.

It's really bad, and if we can find some way to wake up the honest sleepers in our society, things will click for them.

[marions ghost]

30. exactly

the problem seems to be that most people are not even aware of the issues until they have a problem, and then there is very little support and they are left to fight (or not fight) on their own. And so they lose.

Individuals can't fight this. Takes group pressure. We have no serious advocacy in most states. How do you fight the fact that there is no longer any standard of business ethics, no effective controls against fraud and corruption? People never look past what 'laws' exist to understand how effective they are--ie. you might have some decent laws on the books, but then they may be routinely circumvented, even in the most progressive areas. There is resistance to seeing that things are really that bad. Nobody wants to face it, kind of like how they want to deny election theft (related problem).

How do we wake people up to this? The ethical and moral thing doesn't seem to get their attention as much as the idea that dollars are being sucked out of their pockets. If they realized the true impact on their lives from widespead corruption, (ie. how it affects a community) --would it get their attention? If they realized how vulnerable they themselves are to becoming a victim of white collar crime, would they be more interested?

Elliott Spitzer in New York--apparently one Atty General who has acted on behalf of the public in a couple of cases. Is he an example? Could something be written about him? My mind goes to websites and blogs on this--clearinghouses. Tell me if you know of any that exist. We need a rallying place. A DU group might be a start. I'm talking mainly about the information/education part of it.

This kind of greed and abuse of the public trust is seriously undermining this country. It is at the root of a lot of other evils perpetrated on us. Not enough people realize the connection between what happens locally and how corruption at the Federal level imapcts and magnifies it.

Yada Yada.

[undergroundpanther]

32. It drives me crazy

The denial I see everywhere it really does.

[marions ghost]

33. you find the most denial

when people are most fearful.

Those who can confront the truth of this period in history must continue to hammer it where ever we can. That's our role as realists, activists, canaries in the coal mine. We can offer the ostriches in denial and fear some validation when they finally wake up. The hard truth literally hurts some people, whereas others hurt more when confronted with lies. Rather than elevating ourselves for being wiser and braver--the point is trying to help others of more limited perception to see. l

[jmowreader]

25. The cadavers didn't seem to be diseased

They just used an embalming room at the local funeral parlor to remove the donated tissue--which of course should bring to mind the obvious question, "now why in HELL would they do that?" Oh...probably because it's less expensive to just throw the cadaver on a table over there, dissect it and throw the unpopular parts into the crematory than it would have been to wrap it up, drive it to the hospital, rent an operating room, dissect the cadaver at the hospital, then haul the leftovers back to the funeral home for cremation.

[TechBear_Seattle]

35. And without the sterility required of a hospital

Autoclaving and sanitizing is just so expensive! The person receiving the transplant will be pumped full of antibiotics anyway, so what does it matter if the scalpel used to remove his new liver was also used to remove organs from three other people?

[jmowreader]

36. They also used it to remove the glazing putty from the windows

[Hugin]

38. and to clean under their fingernails...

... cut their lunch sandwich...

and on and on.

[jmowreader]

40. I hope they wash it between "shop maintenance" and "lunch"

[ryanus]

18. This is the reality

that most people do not want to believe. Our country is dual natured: there are good people living their lives, working within a system that appears democratic. And then we have some really bad dudes doing some really bad stuff who steer clear of trouble and exposure because the good people can't imagine that there are bad dudes doing really bad stuff in their country.

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. Somedays I feel like Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body

Snatchers. I walk around trying to dull my emotions so I can fit in and not be discovered.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. This must be pretty common, we just had

one in the NYC/NJ area not too long ago

[Cobalt Violet]

3. I can't stand the secrets anymore. n/t

[GeorgeGist]

5. We can always hope for justice...

that any tainted tissue found it's home in a neocon.

[leftchick]

6. didn't dick have some work done this year?

hope indeed.

[acmavm]

8. Old Phillip is quite the guy. Would make any mother proud.

Adds a whole new dimension to the phrase 'anything for a buck'. (Sorry Larry, Darryl, & Darryl)

[bmbmd]

9. Sounds just like the Long ARM

of Gil Hamilton.

[Double T]

10. Wouldn't want the doctors and the hospitals that 'installed'.......

tainted body parts to be sued, now would we???? The ENTIRE health care system is in a shambles with no accountability or responsibility for the 'QUALITY' of health care services provided. The ALL @$#%$$^& MIGHTY DOLLAR RULES and that is ALL that matters.

[w4rma]

11. I think the doctors and probably the hospitals are probably the least at

blame. Doctors aren't interested in giving people cancerous organs and skin. Even if for the most practical reason that the vast majority of them want to keep their good reputation, at least among the medical community.

[Double T]

13. The 'installer' should ALWAYS know the source, integrity and quality......

of the material THEY are installing, it is THEIR responsibility to do so.

[w4rma]

14. Doctors don't have time to check every detail like that. There are others

in the "chain of supply" that are supposed to handle that for them.

[Lance_Boyle]

20. In a nearby part of NC,

the super-busy Duke docs don't even always have the time to match blood types on organ transplants. I guess they're secretly hoping that the used hydraulic fluid they wash the surgical instruments in will make everything OK.

[Horse with no Name]

27. link please

Because I don't believe a thing you just said.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

29. I wish I could say otherwise, but both stories are true.

The Jesica Santillan story was the organ story

From the NY Times- (can't link w/o giving out personal info)
Even the Elite Hospitals Aren't Immune to Errors

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
Published: February 23, 2003
The medical error that led surgeons to put the wrong organs into a teenager at Duke University Hospital on Feb. 7 was not the first embarrassment in recent years for this elite medical institution. Nor are such problems limited to Duke.

In 1999, federal officials suspended the hospital's license to conduct all of the university's clinical trials and other human experiments for four days because it had violated ethics and safety rules, did not fully warn volunteers of risks and had lax record-keeping for clinical trials.

Now the hospital is having to answer questions about how it could have transplanted a heart and two lungs of the wrong blood type into Jésica Santillán, 17, who died yesterday after receiving a second heart-lung transplant on Thursday.

Medical errors are thought to be responsible for as many as 98,000 deaths in the United States every year, and the nation's most august hospitals are far from immune. The errors have often resulted, as in Duke's case, not from a failure of cutting-edge medicine but from lapses in basic safety procedures.
<snip>

The hydraulic fluid story happened last year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/13/national/13duke.html

June 13, 2005
Surgical Tools 'Washed' in Hydraulic Fluid
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RALEIGH, N.C., June 12 (AP) - About 3,800 patients at two hospitals run by Duke University Health System were operated on last November and December with instruments that were washed in hydraulic fluid instead of detergent, hospital regulators said.

Duke Health Raleigh Hospital and Durham Regional Hospital did not detect the problem for weeks, despite complaints from staff members about slick tools, putting patients in "immediate jeopardy," according to a report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The mix-up apparently occurred last summer, when an elevator company drained hydraulic fluid into empty detergent barrels and the detergent supplier mistakenly redistributed them.

[leftchick]

34. I remember those stories well

NPR interviewed a woman still suffering from the hydraulic fluid episode. At DUKE UNIVERSITY no less!

:grr:

[jmowreader]

37. Do you have to undergo nose removal to work at Duke?

There is no WAY hydraulic fluid and medical-instrument soap smell the same.

[Horse with no Name]

39. Pathetic.

Thank you for the links.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

41. You're welcome- I probably wouldn't have believed it either...

But, as I live in the area, I remember both all too well. :hi:

[KoKo]

28. The "chain of supply" is supposed to be checked by the FDA...under Bush

what do you think the FDA might be doing as far as testing? I have other links that shows how they've FAILED with BODY PARTS...

[Horse with no Name]

26. That is the government's responsibility

and the reason that we pay people to run the FDA and other government entities.
If a particular company is licensed by the federal government, there isn't any reason to believe that they aren't complying with regulations.

[havocmom]

12. .

[robbedvoter]

15. That is the second story of the sort I read

The first one appeared in USa Today right after "Graft in the Girl" of Bones dealt with the potential consequences. (in that story, a girl developped cancer from a dubious origin bone graft done to treat a fracture)

[lonestarnot]

16. Not donating any body parts, not never! not! I'm too mean for anybody

else. I'd backfire on 'em.

[KoKo]

17. Dental industry concerned/ cadaveric bone is used in Dental Implants

Dental Implants are becoming a huge business.

[undergroundpanther]

31. wonder how many katrina

victims were used for parts...Remember not all the bodies were counted for and they did not die of diease..prime tissues for the swiping for these profit grubbing ghouls..Justa Thought.