10 get tainted-tissue alert
Posted on Sat, Mar. 18, 2006
10 get tainted-tissue alert
The patients were informed by hospitals that they received transplant tissue
recalled by the FDA.
By John Sullivan
Inquirer Staff Writer
Three area hospitals have notified 10 patients that they received transplanted
human tissue the Food and Drug Administration has since recalled because it may
harbor disease.
Hospital officials at Thomas Jefferson University, Hahnemann University and
Temple University confirmed yesterday that they used tissue purchased through
suppliers who had bought it from Biomedical Tissue Services. The now-defunct
tissue-harvesting company based in Fort Lee, N.J., is alleged to have bought
body parts from funeral homes without the consent of families.
A Brooklyn grand jury has charged company owner Michael Mastromarino, his
partner and two assistants with 122 criminal counts related to harvesting and
selling tissue.
Hundreds of patients across the country may have received tissue from
Biomedical, and many have undergone testing for HIV, hepatitis B and C, and
other communicable diseases.
Eight of the 10 latest local cases were at Thomas Jefferson. The hospital
performs many surgeries requiring replacement bones or tissue.
"All of the patients have been notified," Jefferson University spokeswoman Nan
Meyers said. She said the hospital does not know how many have sought testing.
Temple University Hospital spokesman Andy Smith said only one patient there had
been affected. "We have no reason to believe there are others involved."
One patient at Hahnemann, which is owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp., may have
received potentially tainted tissue during a hernia repair, the hospital said.
The FDA's Web site says the risk of disease transmission through tissue
transplantation is very low, but real.
In 2001, a 23-year-old Minnesota man was killed by toxic bacteria lurking in
transplanted bone and cartilage used to reconstruct his knee.
In 2002, five U.S. tissue recipients were infected by hepatitis C believed to
have come from a single donor's tissues. And in 2003, contaminated corneas
resulted in vision loss in two people.
Last month, a Northeast Philadelphia woman, Darlene Krzywicki, 42, said she
contracted hepatitis C from transplanted bone marrow purchased from a Biomedical
provider. She is suing the tissue provider.
Her attorney, Aaron Freiwald, said he is investigating several more local cases,
but so far only Krzywicki has tested positive for any disease.