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BioMedical Tissue Services Scandal


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BioMedical Tissue Services Scandal

Biomedical Tissue Services (BTS) proprietor Michael Mastromarino has been accused of stealing body parts from approximately 1,077 cadavers without relatives’ permission from more than 30 funeral homes. Mr. Mastromarino then sold the unscreened tissue for profits, and forged documents to cover his tracks. In February 2006, the Brooklyn District Attorney in a 122-count indictment charged Mastromarino and three additional workers.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly stated in February 2006 that investigators had identified funeral homes in northern New Jersey, New York and one in Philadelphia had taken part in the body snatching. An ex- Biomedical Tissue worker told the Philadelphia Daily News in a February 2006 interview that he made approximately a dozen trips to the Louis Garzone Funeral Home in late 2004. During these trips, Kevin Vickers, the ex-Biomedical Tissue Services (BTS) worker said two to three bodies were harvested during each trip.

Authorities in New York have dug up more than a dozen bodies to verify that parts were illegally harvested. In some instances plastic hardware-store tubing would found as replacements to bones. It is believed that funeral home operators accepted money from the BioMedical Tissue Services (BTS) in exchange for ignoring obviously forged death certificates and consent forms. The body parts and tissue in question have been distributed throughout the country and used in thousands of operations.

Biomedical Tissue Services sold these illegal body parts to several large companies including Lifecell Corp., Regeneration Technologies, Inc., Tutogen Medical, Inc., SpinalGraft Technologies, LLC, Lost Mountain Tissue Bank and The Blood & Tissue Center of Central Texas. The FDA and most of the companies involved have not disclosed the number of patients that received the untested parts and tissue.

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BioMedical Tissue Services ScandalRSS Feed

Body Parts Scam Tops 450 Cases

May 15, 2007 | AP
More than 450 people nationwide now claim they received illegally obtained and possibly diseased body parts from a New Jersey-based scheme, according to court documents.The Food and Drug Administration has said it's concerned that the bone and tissue could be infected with the AIDS virus, syphilis and hepatitis, but the risk of infection is small.The FDA, which did not return requests for comment, has not said whether any patients have ailments linked to the tissue, nor has it revealed how many...

U.K. Probes Use of Stolen Body Parts

Sep 21, 2006 | AP
A small number of British patients may have received bone transplants from disease-contaminated body parts, according to a U.K. medical agency. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, which oversees the safety of medicines and medical devices, on Wednesday released a list of 25 hospitals in the U.K. where patients may have received tainted bone material. "Affected tissue has been recalled, but up to 82 units of affected bone graft material may have been implanted into a...

Bogus records raise more fears in tissue trade

Sep 18, 2006 | AP
The medical records that accompanied the body of “Masterpiece Theatre” host Alistair Cooke were wrong in just about every possible way. His name was misspelled. His birthdate was off by 10 years. His Social Security number wasn’t even close. Also wrong were the name of his doctor and the time and cause of his death. There was even a bogus name and phone number for a family member who supposedly agreed to donate the 95-year-old celebrity’s body parts for tissue...

Hundreds of Body Parts Recalled in New Tainted Tissue Scandal

Aug 23, 2006 | AP
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...

Body-part harvesting company must close

Aug 18, 2006 | AP
Health officials ordered a North Carolina company that collected human body parts for transplant to shut down Friday after inspectors found violations that posed a threat to human health. The Food and Drug Administration said it ordered Donor Referral Services to cease all manufacturing and to retain all cadaver tissues, following June inspections of the company in Raleigh, N.C. The company collected tissue for other firms that later processed it for transplantation. The inspections found...

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Untested Body Parts
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