Doctor charged in Göttingen organ donation scandal

Doctor charged in Göttingen organ donation scandal

09/07/2013

In the process surrounding the Göttingen organ donation scandal, the accused physician continues to deny the allegations. Now, however, he was charged by administrative employees. It was also said that the hospital in Göttingen was not particularly picky in donor organs.

The death of patients accepted
In connection with the organ donation scandal at the University Hospital Göttingen, a 46-year-old physician is charged with being accused by the public prosecutor of the eleven attempted manslaughter and the triple bodily injury with death. The former head of Göttingen's transplantation medicine is said to have changed data from patients in order to get to donor organs faster. By the falsified data he would have accepted that patients died, which should have received according to the guidelines actually rather a donor organ.

Administrative staff found no evidence
Thus, among other things, patients who were waiting for a donor liver, at the central registry „Euro Transplant“ falsely also reported as requiring dialysis. These patients would have received faster organs than prescribed by the guidelines. Administrative employees now said before the district court in Göttingen that they had found in the relevant reviews in a number of cases, no evidence of alleged dialysis.

Not particularly choosy about organs
On Wednesday, the Medical Director of „Euro Transplant“, Prof. Axel Rahmel, before the district court, said that transplantation medicine in Göttingen's university hospital was not particularly picky when it came to donor livers. Thus, the profiles of the listed patients were chosen so that virtually every Eurotransplant organ was offered in Göttingen. 2010 and 2011 was there with „wide profiles“ which means that the restrictive data such as age and weight were offered openly, such as the age of five to 90 years or the weight of 20 to 120 kilos. Patients were also reported as customers for organs of drug addicts or sick people. Rahmel said: „We would like to see if the receiver profiles are as tailor-made as possible“, to allow a fast and accurate allocation. However, he denied the question of whether he had noticed irregularities for Göttingen in the data search. The examiners of the commissions have been assisted. (Ad)

Picture: Lothar Wandtner