Organ donation scandal at the German Heart Center

Prosecutor investigates attempted manslaughter against doctor

08/22/2014

The prosecution charges a senior physician at the Berlin Heart Center, between 2010 and 2012 patients to better places on the waiting list for organ donation and at the same time brought others into mortal danger, because they have slipped in the ranking of organ recipients further behind. Other doctors of the clinic should have been involved in the manipulation.

A doctor at the Berlin Heart Center could have manipulated the waiting list for heart transplants
The prosecution is now investigating attempted manslaughter. There is a suspicion that the rank order on the cardiac transplantation waiting list has been manipulated, prosecutors spokesman Martin Steltner told the news agency „dpa“. It had to be checked whether patients on the list slipped backwards and thus potentially in mortal danger, because others were preferred. It was also determined whether patients died because of the manipulation.

According to media reports, the senior physician is said to have prescribed high doses of certain medicines to nearly 30 patients between 2010 and 2012, which made their health more critical. Therefore, the patients on the waiting list have been moved further up, so the suspicion. As the press reports indicate, the manipulation was revealed by a review commission that was used in 2012 as a result of an organ donation scandal. A report is expected by the end of August from the Commission, which also includes the German Medical Association.

Number of organ donors fell significantly after last organ donation scandal
To prevent tampering - for example, donor organs are being transplanted to certain patients for the payment of large sums - every patient waiting for a donor organ is put on a list. Above all, the urgency of the required organ, that is to say the state of health of the patient, is decisive for the ranking.

In Germany, there are currently around 10,700 patients waiting for a donor organ. As the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation informs, a seriously ill person dies on the waiting list every eight hours because no organ is available. At the German Heart Center, more than 2,500 surgeries are performed annually using the heart-lung machine. In addition, more than 2,000 further procedures on the heart and blood vessels, including about 100 heart and / or lung transplants, are performed by specialists.

Due to the organ donation scandal in 2012, when it became known that manipulation was carried out at hospitals in Göttingen, Regensburg, Leipzig and Munich in the allocation of replacement livers, the numbers of organ donors dropped significantly. Last year there were only 876 organ donors, a historic low. In 2012 there were 1,046 and 1,200 in 2011. This year, too, there have been few donors so far. From January to July there were only 513 organ donors.

Herzzentrum has informed the public prosecutor's office on its own initiative
The heart center itself had initiated the investigation. „We have filed a complaint with the prosecutor“, said clinic spokeswoman Barbara Nickolaus told the news agency. The Berlin health senator Mario Czaja (CDU) was also informed about the suspicion. According to the prosecution, a lawyer should have handed over the documents of the cardiac center. (Ag)