From the Los Angeles Times:
Authorities investigate allegations that a Kaiser surgeon in San Luis Obispo hastened a possible donor’s demise.
By Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, Times Staff Writers
February 28, 2007
Police are investigating whether a Kaiser Permanente transplant surgeon attempted to hasten the death last February of a 26-year-old San Luis Obispo man on life support in order to harvest his organs more quickly.
The allegations, if true, would constitute a grave breach of the nation’s organ transplant rules, as well as a public relations setback for those promoting organ donation, experts in transplantation said.
San Luis Obispo police and the Medical Board of California are looking into the conduct of Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, who was a surgeon at Kaiser’s now-defunct kidney transplant program in San Francisco.
At issue is whether he ordered excessive doses of powerful pain medication to speed the death of Ruben Navarro, according to several sources familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because investigations are ongoing.
Roozrokh could not be reached for comment. His attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, acknowledged that his client may have made some mistakes but said that “he certainly wasn’t the only one.”
“I just don’t think that Dr. Roozrokh ought to be crucified as a result of this incident or his career destroyed,” said Schwartzbach, who declined to address specific allegations.
Medical board spokeswoman Candis Cohen said her agency is also investigating the conduct of a second physician present during the incident. That person, Kaiser officials confirmed, is Dr. Arturo Martinez, who at the time was the surgical director of Kaiser’s transplant program. Martinez declined to comment Tuesday.
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More:
March 2, 2007, from the LA Times: Report tells of errors in organ case — U.S. regulators detail how a potential donor was given huge doses of sedatives and painkillers as six people watched.
March 2, 2007, from the Santa Clarita Signal: Dead? Or Just About? Then Kaiser Wants You!!
July 30, 2007: Kaiser Doctor Accused Of Speeding Organ Donor Death — A surgeon with close ties to the Bay Area was charged Monday with prescribing excessive drugs to a comatose, disabled patient to hasten his death and harvest his organs for transplantation. It?s the first such criminal case against a transplant doctor in the United States, the San Luis Obispo County district attorney?s office said.
“The greatest tragedy resulting from this story would be if altruistic Americans lose faith in organ donation processes and choose not to become organ donors.”
Other than the way Kaiser handled my particular case of extreme negligence and coverups, I have to say, this one takes the cake. This is CORRUPTION and GREED at it’s finest. This is truly, truly sickening and heartbreaking.
Kaiser is setting a VERY BAD and EVIL precedence in this world. Once and for all, not just the kidney fiasco but ALL Kaiser negligence should be investigated at a VERY DEEP and REAL level. I wonder if any of the state agencies that regulate this type of thing will EVER wake up to the fact that with Kaiser, it is not just about kidney transplants gone wrong, even though their handling has and is extremely tragic, but it is KAISER that is the problem. KAISER THAT IS THE PROBLEM. Kaiser breeds this type of mentality. This is not an isolated incident within Kaiser.
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Where’d this guy train, the Mengele School of Medicine?
It’s called the Kaiserization of the medical profession, and it ain’t pretty.