Doctor cleared on charges of harming brain damaged man during organ extraction

From The New York Times Dec. 18:

SAN FRANCISCO — A California transplant surgeon was acquitted on Dec. 18 of a charge that he had intentionally harmed a donor to speed extraction of the patient’s kidney and liver. The verdict closed a case that had drawn widespread attention to the medical, and ethical, complexities of organ transplantation.

The surgeon, Dr. Hootan C. Roozrokh, (pictured left) was found not guilty of a single felony charge of abuse of a dependent adult, after two other felony charges — administering harmful substances and unlawful prescription — were dropped last spring. Prosecutors had argued that Dr. Roozrokh, 35, prescribed excessive amount of drugs during a failed harvesting procedure on a brain-damaged donor, Ruben Navarro, in San Luis Obispo, in February 2006.

The doctor’s lawyer, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, had said that Dr. Roozrokh, a surgeon based in San Francisco who had flown in to retrieve the organs, had been trying to ease the patient’s suffering after other doctors failed to perform their duties.

“Dr. Roozrokh was put in an untenable situation where he could have walked out,” Mr. Schwartzbach said, “but had he walked out, there was no one there to care for Ruben.”

Dr. Roozrokh is believed to be the first doctor accused of such actions. The verdict came after a two-month trial and two days of jury deliberation. The San Luis Obispo deputy district attorney who tried the case, Karen Gray, did not return a call for comment.

Dr. Roozrokh, an Iranian émigré and naturalized American, had been trying a lesser-used technique known as donation after cardiac death, which involves removing a patient from life support before extracting organs.

Most donations involve brain-dead patients, but a growing demand for organs has led to an increase in such cardiac procedures, which require speedy retrieval after a patient’s heart stops. But Mr. Navarro, 25, who had been brain-damaged and disabled by a neurological disorder, did not die immediately after his ventilator was removed, succumbing eight hours later. The Associated Press said the jury issued a statement with its verdict saying the case illustrated a “desperate need” for clear policy on cardiac death donations.

Among transplant groups, the verdict on Thursday was greeted with a mix of relief and concerns about the impact of the case on potential donors.

“I think we must acknowledge the sensitivities of the events on the ground,” said Dr. Goran B. Klintmalm, a former president of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, “and extend our sympathies for the surgeon.”

Mr. Schwartzbach said, “Nobody can give him back the three years he’s lost, both personally and professionally.”