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New Hampshire health officials say ten transplant patients treated at three hospitals may have received tissue stolen from a dead body.
The state says Manchester's Elliot Hospital and Catholic Medical Center plus the Alice Peck Day Hospital in Lebanon treated the patients with tissue or bone from a New Jersey firm thats owner has been charged with carving up cadavers and selling stolen tissue without testing it for disease.
One of the New Hampshire patients, Cindy Rossiter of Brookline, NH says she feels sick that a bone implanted in her neck may have been diseased. She's been tested once, with negative results, and wants to be tested again.
"It's creepy," says Rossiter. "I don't -- I don't know where this bone came from. I don't know how come? what for? And if it was, you know, what kind of disease this person had?"
Greg Moore, a spokesman for the state health department, says the health department set up a hotline for transplant patients to call with questions, 603-271-4496.
Moore said the ten patients have been or will be tested for two strains of H-I-V, hepatitis B and C and syphilis.
Last month, Michael Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and Joseph Nicelli, who owned and worked in a Brooklyn funeral parlor, were arraigned on numerous charges including body stealing, opening graves and unlawful dissection.
Investigators say they stole organs and tissue from dead bodies without consent of relatives and sold the harvested material for millions of dollars. X-rays show that in some cases, bones and tissues were replaced with pipes and other metal objects.
The indictment alleges the defendants forged death certificates and organ donor consent forms to create the appearance the tissue was legally harvested.
According to investigators, the scandal involves scores of funeral homes and hundreds of looted bodies.
Source: http://www.cbs4boston.com
The state says Manchester's Elliot Hospital and Catholic Medical Center plus the Alice Peck Day Hospital in Lebanon treated the patients with tissue or bone from a New Jersey firm thats owner has been charged with carving up cadavers and selling stolen tissue without testing it for disease.
One of the New Hampshire patients, Cindy Rossiter of Brookline, NH says she feels sick that a bone implanted in her neck may have been diseased. She's been tested once, with negative results, and wants to be tested again.
"It's creepy," says Rossiter. "I don't -- I don't know where this bone came from. I don't know how come? what for? And if it was, you know, what kind of disease this person had?"
Greg Moore, a spokesman for the state health department, says the health department set up a hotline for transplant patients to call with questions, 603-271-4496.
Moore said the ten patients have been or will be tested for two strains of H-I-V, hepatitis B and C and syphilis.
Last month, Michael Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and Joseph Nicelli, who owned and worked in a Brooklyn funeral parlor, were arraigned on numerous charges including body stealing, opening graves and unlawful dissection.
Investigators say they stole organs and tissue from dead bodies without consent of relatives and sold the harvested material for millions of dollars. X-rays show that in some cases, bones and tissues were replaced with pipes and other metal objects.
The indictment alleges the defendants forged death certificates and organ donor consent forms to create the appearance the tissue was legally harvested.
According to investigators, the scandal involves scores of funeral homes and hundreds of looted bodies.
Source: http://www.cbs4boston.com
