More than 80 body parts from New Jersey-based Biomedical Tissue Services were used in procedures on dozens of patients in the UK, and now police in the U.S., along with the FDA, are investigating whether those body parts were stolen.
The hospitals say they haven't notified allograft recipients because there is no risk associated with the stolen bones, which were taken from bodies without notifying the next of kin. Authorities say the chance of contamination in affected patients is a million to one.
"This is very real and shows the sad state of organized medicine, that the patients who received these bone implants were never told about their origin," said Mike Adams, an open critic of Western medicine practices.
"We based it entirely on clinical risk and we did not think there was any clinical risk over and above that when the usual bones were used," says Ian Lane, from Cardiff and Vale NHS trust, on the decision not to tell patients.
All bone transplant patients who had their procedures done at one of the 25 centers in England and Wales have been sent letters indicating that they are not at any risk, but that isn't good enough for some.
"Patients have the right to know. The risk of contamination may be small but it's nevertheless the right of those patients to know," says member of the Welsh Assembly Jenny Randerson.
Adams added, "Regardless of the chance of contamination, it is the duty of these hospitals to notify patients of a situation like this and deal with it, and not just wait until the media exposes it."
The FDA has recalled tissues used from Biomedical Tissue Services in the U.S., and ordered the firm to cease manufacturing and distribution. BTS has been shut down pending investigation.
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