Taphophilia.(dot) Com - Florida woman sues over possible contaminated tissue transplant

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Florida woman sues over possible contaminated tissue transplant

Written by DeadGirl
Friday, 10 March 2006
March 7, 2006, 3:05 PM EST TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ A Florida woman who had a bone transplant is suing the company that provided the material, saying it was illegally harvested from a corpse that had not been screened for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Kay Phelps, 43, is suing Tutogen Medical Inc., one of five companies that received tissue and bone authorities say was taken illegally from corpses at six funeral homes in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia by Biomedical Tissues Services of Fort Lee, N.J. A human body can be worth up to $7,000 for its harvested parts, authorities said. Phelps, who had a surgery to replace a bone in her face, has twice tested negative for HIV, but she has undergone much anguish. "I am horribly disgusted, and I feel helpless. I have a lot of unanswered questions," said Phelps, who filed the lawsuit last month. The suit seeks class-action status on behalf of all patients in Florida who might have received the tissue that was sold to medical supply houses that supplied surgeons. A officials at Tutogen's corporate office in West Paterson, N.J., did not immediately return a telephone message left Tuesday by The Associated Press. A woman at Tutogen's Alachua County office said she was not authorized to speak about the lawsuit and declined to give her name. Michael Mastromarino, the owner of Biomedical, and three other people were arraigned in New York City Feb. 23 and pleaded not guilty to charges of enterprise corruption, body stealing and opening graves, forgery and unlawful dissection. The charges allege Mastromarino and his associates paid funeral home workers in the three-state area $1,000 each to bring bodies to a funeral home in Brooklyn where skin and bone were harvested. Officials say the material has turned up in patients as far south as Florida and as far west as Nebraska. Death certificates were altered or faked and forged permission documents were created so the parts could be sold to medical supply houses, according to the charges. Late last year, the Food and Drug Administration ordered a recall of the potentially tainted products and warned that patients could have been exposed to HIV and other diseases. However, the FDA insisted the risk of infection was minimal. Yearly more than 1 million Americans have medical procedures, such as disk replacements or dental implants, using tissue from cadavers. Hospitals have contacted patients around the country who received tissue traced to the company between early 2004 and September 2005. They are being offered testing for AIDS, hepatitis and syphilis. Phelps called the letter she received just before Halloween was her "trick-or-treat." She has paid twice to be tested. Although the tests were negative, she said she decided to file the lawsuit because she wanted to do something to help other patients. "I'm just being a voice for the other recipients," she said. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--contaminatedtissu0307mar07,0,3534538.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries