Trial against transplant doctor in Göttingen

Defendant transplant doctor denies lack of organs

08/24/2013

In the process of fraud in organ transplants against a doctor in Göttingen, the defendant denied that there was a shortage of donor livers.

„There is no organ deficiency“
On Friday, the 46-year-old accused transplant physician told the Göttingen district court: „There is no organ deficiency.“ The offer would be sufficient for all patients who urgently need an organ. The doctor said that if so-called stable patients were removed from the waiting list of the central contracting agency Eurotransplant, there would be an oversupply. The former head of transplantation medicine in Göttingen University Hospital is accused of the eleven attempted manslaughter and the threefold bodily injury with death. The accused's machinations would have left other sick patients with no organs and may have died, according to the prosecution. Three patients, to whom the doctor transferred livers without medical necessity, subsequently died.

Manipulations caused
The defendant is accused of having caused manipulation in order to get faster organs for his patients. The police investigator said as a witness that the physician himself had not entered any wrong data into the reporting system for Eurotransplant. In some cases he should also be loud „NDR 1“ have falsely documented that patients are on dialysis, which also increases the chance of getting a donor organ faster. Added to this is the accusation that the physician should have registered patients for transplants without the prescribed alcohol abstinence of six months had been observed.

Doubts about genuine education interest
The process indicated how difficult it could be to prove that other patients were harmed. As an example for a case, the court read the protocol of Eurotransplant. Patients, who slipped back on the waiting list due to the alleged manipulations in Göttingen, nevertheless received donor livers. Even on the second day of the trial, the doctor did not respond to the prosecution's specific allegations. However, he explained that there were always enough donor organs for patients with urgent needs. The defendant did not respond to questions from the prosecution and sideline. This was justified by defender Steffen Stern with doubts that both would have a real educational interest.

No financial motives
The accused said that financial motives did not play a role in his work. For example, bonus payments of 1,500 euros would have been lower in total after a certain number of liver transplants than if he had been able to bill overtime. He worked 12 months a year and up to 30 days a month in the clinic. The doctor owns an Israeli passport in addition to his German and sits since January due to flight danger in custody. The prosecutor had demanded in her indictment a professional ban on the physician - from the point of view of the defendant, however, completely incomprehensible, because he was „He has been ready for the patients day and night and has his profession as a doctor „a life task“ considered, reported „NDR 1“ a few days ago.

Number of organ donors decreased
The trial was the first trial in Germany in which a doctor accused of manipulating patient data was accused of a homicidal offense. By May 2014, more than 40 negotiation days have been scheduled so far. The willingness to donate organ had fallen significantly after the announcement of the case last summer. According to the German Foundation for Organ Donation, the number of organ donors has dropped by nearly 20 percent since then. (Ad)

Picture credits: Martin Büdenbender