Dead human tissue illegally used in surgery

Oct 31 2005

London Health Sciences Centre is investigating if its surgeons used human tissue products that were recalled because they might have been taken illegally from corpses at funeral homes in the United States.

Health Canada has warned that 300 human tissue products from Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd. in the United States had been sold to companies in the Toronto area.

Biomedical Tissue Services supplies hospitals, physicians and dental offices across the country, and the products are mainly used in orthopedic surgery and dental procedures.

The company is apparently under investigation for allegedly obtaining bones and other tissues from bodies trafficked from New York-area funeral homes.

The London Health Sciences Centre is investigating if its surgeons used human tissue products that were recalled because they might have been taken illegally from corpses at funeral homes in the United States.

Health Canada says that all patients who received these tissue products should be tested for HIV-1 and 2, the viruses that cause AIDS, hepatitis B and C, human T-cell lymphotropic virus and syphilis.

LHSC has said it is aware of the tissue recall and is conducting its own investigation.

Gary Byrne, vice-president of diagnostics at the hospital,says that at this point, there is no indication that LHSC has been supplied with any of the recalled tissue products by its biomedical suppliers.

If they learn otherwise they will act immediately on Health Canada's advice and contact all patients who received these products.

A spokesperson for St. Joseph's Health Care said none of the recalled products were used at the hospital.

Although U.S. law prohibits the sale of body parts for profit, an investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney's office alleges that relatives' consent forms were forged and cause-of-death records altered to make the donations to tissue-processing companies acceptable.

If patients have died of such diseases as HIV or hepatitis, they are disqualified from donating tissue.

As yet Health Canada has not determined how many of the 300 tissue products actually ended up in Canadians' bodies.

To date no cases of disease or death related to these tissue products have been reported in Canada or the United States.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the chance of infection from the products is minimal.