Surgeon not guilty of organ harvestingThursday, December 18, 2008
AP
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- A San Francisco transplant surgeon who was alleged to have hastened the death of a man so his organs could be harvested was acquitted Thursday of dependent adult abuse in a case which became a symbol of problems facing national organ transplant programs.
Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, 34, was found not guilty after a jury deliberated for more than two days. He faced up to four years in prison if he was convicted. Two other felony counts were dismissed in March by Superior Court Judge Martin Tangeman.
The case was believed to be the first of its kind brought against a transplant doctor in the United States.
Roozrokh was accused of prescribing too much medication to Ruben Navarro, 26, when he died in February 2006 at a San Luis Obispo hospital. He had a debilitating neurological disease and was in a coma after a heart attack.
Roozrokh testified in his own defense, saying he did not try to hasten Navarro's death but did order painkillers to ensure the patient would not suffer pain when being withdrawn from life support.
Navarro's mother had authorized harvesting of his organs but because he was not brain dead it was determined that the transplant procedure to be used would be "Donation after Cardiac Death," known as DCD, which requires withdrawal of life support leading to death prior to recovery of organs.
As it turned out, Navarro's organs could not be harvested because he did not die within an hour after being removed from life support. He died eight hours later.
The prosecution relied on testimony of a doctor and nurse who accused Roozrokh of administering drugs to speed up Navarro's death.
The attending physician, Dr. Laura Lubarsky, was given immunity from prosecution for her testimony. She said she did not realize she was in charge that night.
"I didn't feel like I was supposed to be the person managing the case," Lubarsky testified. "I had never experienced anything like that before, and I assumed they were following some sort of protocol."
Roozrokh testified that hospital staff and a transplant coordinator abdicated their duty to take care of the patient at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, leaving him no choice but to order the use of drugs.
"I felt he could suffer. My concern was to ensure Ruben would not suffer No one was taking care of him," the defendant said.
Prosecutor Karen Gray claimed it was a conflict of interest for Roozrokh, the transplant surgeon, to oversee care for the patient and said he ordered excessive amounts of morphine and the sedative Ativan.
Defense attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach called an expert who said the dose was not excessive and another expert who came from Ohio to testify, saying he wanted to prevent harm to the practice of organ transplantation.
"I don't want the negative publicity of an unfair prosecution to affect the progress we've made," said Dr. John Fung, director of the transplant center at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
"This was a failure of the whole system, not one person," Fung said.
Phone messages left for Gray and Schwartzbach seeking comment on the verdict were not immediately returned.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/state&id=6563378
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