it's on like neckbone!
- From: "the Bede" <rspwsownthebede@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:58:15 -0500
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/man-sues-over-stolen-neckbone-implant/20070927164309990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
Man Sues Over Stolen Neckbone Implant
AP
Posted: 2007-09-27 17:36:20
Filed Under: Weird News
FORT WORTH (Sept. 27) - A man who found out the bone implanted in his neck
to relieve back pain was stolen from a corpse is suing a medical technology
company and several tissue processing businesses, including two in
Tennessee.
James Livingston, 44, of Weatherford, does not seek a specific monetary
amount in his suit filed in New York last month against Minneapolis-based
Medtronic Inc. for fraud and negligence.
Other defendants are Memphis, Tenn.-based Sofamor Danek Inc.; Knoxville,
Tenn.-based Spinalgraft Technologies Inc.; Alachua, Fla.-based Regeneration
Technologies Inc.; Fort Lee, N.J.-based Biomedical Tissue Services; Michael
Mastromarino and Joseph Nicelli.
"How can you sell parts out of a body, just like parts from a stolen car?"
Livingston said.
New York authorities believe Mastromarino, owner of now-defunct Biomedical
Tissue Services, made deals with funeral directors to remove bones, tendons
and heart valves from corpses without notifying their families or screening
for disease. He has pleaded innocent to charges that include a felony
punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
Nicelli is a former funeral parlor owner and embalmer who also has pleaded
innocent to charges in the case.
Mastromarino is accused of doctoring death certificates and forging consent
forms, then replacing the bones with PVC pipe and sewing the incision so it
would not be noticed at the funerals.
The body parts were shipped to processing firms nationwide, sterilized and
then implanted in patients from early 2004 to September 2005.
It's unclear how many patients received stolen tissue or bone. Livingston's
lawyer, John David Hart of Fort Worth, said other lawsuits have been filed
around the country.
After the New York investigation into Mastromarino, five tissue processors
that received human parts from Biomedical Tissue Services issued voluntarily
recalls. Medtronic, a distributor that received the parts, also issued a
voluntary recall.
Livingston had surgery in 2005 at Baylor All Saints Medical Center at Fort
Worth, which immediately pulled the tissue from its stock after learning of
the recall. Physicians who had implanted the suspect material contacted
their patients - five in all, said Wendy Walker, a spokeswoman for Baylor
Health Care System.
Medtronic has voluntarily recalled about 16,000 bones nationwide, and tests
on 12,000 to 13,000 people show no infectious disease that is traceable to
the recalled tissue, said company spokesman Bert Kelly.
Although Livingston's blood tests have shown no evidence of disease, he said
he is worried about getting sick years from now. Knowing that the bone went
through a sterilization process is of little comfort to him.
"My biggest concern is: Nobody really knows," Livingston said. "And there's
a part of me that really does want to give that bone back."
.
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