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10 Get Tainted Tissue Alert

The patients were informed by hospitals that they received transplant tissue recalled by the FDA.

By John Sullivan
Inquirer Staff Writer

Three area hospitals have notified 10 patients that they received transplanted human tissue the Food and Drug Administration has since recalled because it may harbor disease.

Hospital officials at Thomas Jefferson University, Hahnemann University and Temple University confirmed yesterday that they used tissue purchased through suppliers who had bought it from Biomedical Tissue Services. The now-defunct tissue-harvesting company based in Fort Lee, N.J., is alleged to have bought body parts from funeral homes without the consent of families.

A Brooklyn grand jury has charged company owner Michael Mastromarino, his partner and two assistants with 122 criminal counts related to harvesting and selling tissue.

Hundreds of patients across the country may have received tissue from Biomedical, and many have undergone testing for HIV, hepatitis B and C, and other communicable diseases.

Eight of the 10 latest local cases were at Thomas Jefferson. The hospital performs many surgeries requiring replacement bones or tissue.

"All of the patients have been notified," Jefferson University spokeswoman Nan Meyers said. She said the hospital does not know how many have sought testing.

Temple University Hospital spokesman Andy Smith said only one patient there had been affected. "We have no reason to believe there are others involved."

One patient at Hahnemann, which is owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp., may have received potentially tainted tissue during a hernia repair, the hospital said.

The FDA's Web site says the risk of disease transmission through tissue transplantation is very low, but real.

In 2001, a 23-year-old Minnesota man was killed by toxic bacteria lurking in transplanted bone and cartilage used to reconstruct his knee.

In 2002, five U.S. tissue recipients were infected by hepatitis C believed to have come from a single donor's tissues. And in 2003, contaminated corneas resulted in vision loss in two people.

Last month, a Northeast Philadelphia woman, Darlene Krzywicki, 42, said she contracted hepatitis C from transplanted bone marrow purchased from a Biomedical provider. She is suing the tissue provider.

Her attorney, Aaron Freiwald, said he is investigating several more local cases, but so far only Krzywicki has tested positive for any disease.

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