Two lawsuits filed over infections

A New Jersey company is accused of using body parts without permission.
NEW YORK (AP) -- At least a dozen people who had routine operations contend they caught deadly viruses and other germs from body parts stolen from corpses in a ghoulish scandal that has sent hundreds of people for tests.
The patients tested positive for viruses and bacteria that cause AIDS, hepatitis or syphilis after receiving tissue transplants, according to their lawyers and court records.
Lawsuits have been filed for two Midwestern men, one in Nebraska and one in Ohio. Both claim they caught a hepatitis virus from the tissue implanted in back and spine operations -- a contention that lawyers acknowledge will be difficult to prove.
Lawyers for both men say they know of no other factors that would put their clients at risk for hepatitis.
The Associated Press talked to lawyers representing at least a dozen other clients who say medical tests show they have the AIDS or hepatitis virus or syphilis bacteria -- all of which can be acquired from infected tissue. Those suits have not yet been filed, and the lawyers are continuing to investigate their claims.
So far, about two dozen lawsuits have been filed in federal courts across the country, most seeking class-action status for hundreds of people who were implanted with tissues that the U.S. government recalled.
Accusation
A New Jersey company, Biomedical Tissue Services, is accused of failing to gain consent to take bones, tendons, ligaments, skin and other tissue from cadavers. The most famous example involved the corpse of Alistair Cooke, the longtime host of the PBS series "Masterpiece Theater." Cooke died of cancer at age 95, and his leg bones were removed and shipped to tissue processors for use in medical procedures.
About 1 million procedures a year involve implants of cadaver tissues. The companies that process the body parts for those surgeries say their products are safe and believe the case involving Biomedical Tissue of Fort Lee, N.J., is an aberration.
The owner of BTS and three others have pleaded innocent to the charges against them. BTS has since closed. At least 8,000 people received BTS tissue, according to one of the tissue distributors.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said the chance of getting a disease from BTS tissue is low. But plaintiffs' lawyers are challenging that assertion.
Steve Fogle thought the risk was low when he had spinal fusion surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati on Aug. 29, 2005.
Here's an example
When the Blanchester, Ohio, man got a letter dated Dec. 9, 2005, from his doctor explaining the tissue that was implanted in his neck and spine might carry an infectious disease, he didn't think much about it.
The letter and other documents explained that the tissue had been "terminally sterilized" and stated repeatedly the risk of infection was "low." The letter also said tissue had been recalled due to "improper documentation" and there were no reports of "adverse reactions." Fogle, 41, felt reassured and put off getting tested for hepatitis, syphilis and HIV as recommended by the FDA.
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