UK patients implanted with stolen body parts

The news that US detectives were investigating a modern-day body-snatching ring was enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine.

It was in late 2006 that Swindon-based firm Plus Orthopedics confirmed it had bought tissue and bone from a US company accused of stealing body parts.

Some 25 UK hospitals received the products, which came from Regeneration Technologies Inc (RTI) in the US.

That company, in turn, was supplied by New Jersey-based Biomedical Tissue Services (BTS), whose head, Michael Mastromarino, is now pleading guilty to charges in the US.

Up to 82 units of affected bone graft material are known to have been implanted into unsuspecting patients across the UK.

Lawyers believe around 40 British patients have been affected, although only a handful are seeking legal action.

Law firm Irwin Mitchell is representing somewhere between five and 10 people hit by the scandal in the UK.

Katherine Allen, who specialises in personal injury at the firm, said the civil claims were still ongoing and could focus on several companies and individuals.

“We are pursuing a number of defendants in the US and potentially the UK as well,” she added.

Suzanne Green, from Caerphilly, near Cardiff, is one of the patients being represented by Irwin Mitchell.

She had surgery, involving a bone graft, for a fractured spine and ankle at the University Hospital of Wales in September 2005.

In a 2006 statement, Mrs Green said she was unsure what the long-term implications of her operation would be.

“I can’t believe what is happening, it’s horrific,” she said at the time.

The US Food and Drug Administration has warned in the past that US patients risked being exposed to HIV and other diseases.

In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has always insisted the risk to British patients from affected products is negligible.

BTS sold bones, ligaments and skin for use in operations across the US, with some bones believed to have been ground up for use in dental implants.

In the UK, the used body parts were pieces of bone and associated tissue.

Salford-born Alistair Cooke, the host of the BBC’s Letter from America, died from cancer aged 94 in New York in 2004.