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More than a dozen people have claimed they contracted deadly viruses and other germs from stolen body parts used in routine tissue implantation surgeries. Hundreds of others have been sent for tests after the U.S. government issued a recall on the illegally processed tissue.
Biomedical Tissue Services of New Jersey, which processes body parts for tissue implantation surgeries, is charged with failing to obtain consent to take tendons, bones, ligaments, skin, and other tissue from cadavers.
Two patients claim they caught a hepatitis virus from the implanted cadaver tissue and both have filed lawsuits. At least twelve others have medical tests showing positive results for AIDS, the hepatitis virus, or syphilis bacteria, according to lawyers.
Approximately two dozen lawsuits have been filed in U.S. federal courts – the majority of which are seeking class-action status for hundreds of people implanted with the recalled tissues.
According to a tissue distributor, at least 8,000 people received BTS tissue.
The patients received warning letters that reported the recall, attributing it to “improper documentation.” The letter reassured patients that the tissue had been “terminally sterilized” and there had been no reports of “adverse effects.”
Plaintiff''s attorneys contend that the warning letters issued by the doctors and companies that processed and distributed the illegal tissues did a disservice to the patients by diminishing the risks.
“People left the doctor''s office thinking ‘big deal,'' it was a document error,” said Patrick D''Arcy, a New Jersey attorney representing about 200 people who received the recalled cadaver tissue.
Plaintiff''s lawyers are challenging the FDA''s assertion that the risk of contracting a disease or serious illness from BTS tissue is low.
However, proving that the implanted tissue caused the infection in the tissue recipient will pose a special challenge for attorneys. Plaintiff''s attorneys will have to produce extensive medical histories to establish the link to BTS.
BTS has closed. The owner and three others have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.