Doc Accused Of Hastening Death For Organs

Lawyer Denies Charges Calif. Dr. Gave Patient Excessive Drugs

(CBS/AP)  The lawyer for a surgeon charged with prescribing excessive drugs to a disabled patient to speed up his death and harvest his organs says his client has been the subject of a "witch hunt."

Prosecutors in San Luis Obispo County said Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, 33, of San Francisco, gave a harmful drug and prescribed excessive doses of morphine and a sedative to 25-year-old Ruben Navarro, who died in 2006.

Prosecutors and a lawyer for Navarro's family contend Roozrokh told hospital staff, "Let's give him more candy," when referring to the drugs, reports CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes.

Roozrokh was charged Monday in the first such criminal case against a transplant doctor in the U.S., the county district attorney's office said.

M. Gerald Schwartzbach, Roozrokh's lawyer, called the charges "unfounded and ill-advised," saying his client "has unfairly been the subject of an 18-month witch hunt."

"Nothing that Dr. Roozrokh did or said at the hospital that night adversely affected the quality of Mr. Navarro's life or contributed to Mr. Navarro's eventual death," Schwartzbach said in a statement.

Roozrokh planned to surrender and post $10,000 bail, Schwartzbach said.

Navarro was taken in a coma to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, in 2006 after suffering respiratory and cardiac arrest. Although Navarro was found to have irreversible brain damage and was kept on a respirator, he was not considered brain dead because he still had limited brain function.

The day before Navarro died, his family gave approval for a surgical team to recover his organs for donation. That didn't happen, however, because Navarro didn't die within 30 minutes of being removed from life support. He died a day later.

Roozrokh, a surgeon at Kaiser Permanente's now-closed kidney transplant program, was working at the time on behalf of a group that procures and distributes organs.

David Merlin, the former head of that program blew the whistle on mismanagement there.

"There is very little oversight of transplant programs in the United States," Merlin told Hughes.

The prosecutor's office said in a statement that the drugs were prescribed "to accelerate Mr. Navarro's death in order to recover his organs."

State law prohibits transplant surgeons from being involved in the treatment of potential organ donors before they are declared dead.

Prosecutors did not pursue murder charges because witnesses said they did not believe the drugs caused Navarro's death.

The coroner's office this year determined Navarro died of natural causes. Last month, his mother, Rosa, filed a wrongful-death and medical malpractice lawsuit against Roozrokh and others, claiming her son was removed from life support without her permission and given lethal doses of drugs.

"There was no consent to inject him with lethal doses or morphine and Atavin, and no legal consent to take his organs in the first place," Kevin Chaffin, lawyer for Rosa Navarro, told Hughes.

Navarro, who weighed about 80 pounds, was born with a neurological disorder known as adrenoleukodystrophy. He also had cerebral palsy and seizures.

Roozrokh was charged with felony counts of dependent adult abuse, administering a harmful substance and unlawful controlled substance prescription. If convicted of all three counts, he faces up to eight years in state prison or up to one year in jail and a $20,000 fine as a condition of probation.

[extremophil]

It's a lot of trouble just to get organs. I like the piano better.

[zertrat]

"Doc Accused Of Hastening Death For Organs"

Really? My dog is not that clever. He would like the organs, for sure. Oh...wait. Doc. Not Dog. My bad. Sorry.

[tuffer6]

My loved was had a car accident that damaged her lungs, and was kept comatose to keep her calm enough to accept the respirator. We were told of multiple interventions and given great hope for her recovery. Then, a doctor walked in and pronounced her "unsavable". Two of us who are medical professionals did not agree with the assessment, but the doctor convinced our loved one's spouse to stop life-saving procedures that caused her to go downhill.

Then, the spouse was asked to donate her organs. I volunteered to oversee removal of life support to verify her death, and the "organ people" agreed, so the spouse signed. I will make a long story short by saying that I was ultimately forbidden to oversee her "death". I will spare you the details, but the spouse was too filled with sorrow to stay, and then could not be reached to withdraw his consent.

With her not having been brain-dead, we have all been horrified at the thought that her organs were probably removed while she was still on life support to better preserve her kidneys - the part they were most interested in.

[msconcerned]

This story may be the tip of the iceberg about the a small fraction of transplant specialists making the GOD decisions on who deserves to live or not live longer as well as deciding on who gets the organs and who doesn't.
Historically, it is known that if a person, in need of an organ, had attempted sicide in the past (even 20 years ago), even though he or she will never again do it again will be passed up for an organ without their knowledge resulting in the organ being given to someone else.
In the present, however, will the organs be taken out, like this CBS story, from a person who is physically or mentally disabled? It's scary that the possibility is out there.
In the future, will the medical guidelines/decisions be changed so that noone's life will be shortened no matter what the disability may be that the dying human being has?
No one should play GOD. Not even physicians - PERIOD!!

[pbarfar]

just because he had shortcomings at birth he should have been let to die naturally, but it seems that the doctor was in a hurry and didn't even get the organs. i worked with ruben and even though he had physical disabilities, he had fully functional mind. he was a happy young man.
and a joy to be around. it is sad that this is also going to make people afraid to donate thier organs because it will make them think that doctoer won't try to save them or will hasten thier deaths if the md wants thier organs.

[hypnotoad72]

Hmmm, maybe Bill O'Reilly has a point about San Francisco, thanks to Hooter's despicable actions. (Well, this so called doctor is obviously a boob...)

[hypnotoad72]

Once again political hatred by the right is blinding them from the facts. Where I work over half the doctors are from India, and many from China. Same story in the technology department. Do you know why? No, it's not the "Dems". It's the U.S. CORPORATIONS that you glamorize, that import them from abroad because they are cheaper than American workers.
Posted by incog-nito at 03:55 PM : Jul 31, 2007
-------------------------

I must agree. Not only are they 'cheaper', no doubt the work is cheap and horror stories like this... are corporations as pro-life as the politicians they donate big bucks to?

[adian1-2009]

Judgment without knowing the complete set of facts is unwarranted, to say the least. It could very well be that the prosecutor got the news that a civil action had been filed. If such a lawsuit had not been filed, probably the prosecutor would not have charged this physician. From what we can gather from the story, the patient had some grave health shortcomings since birth. American society is the most litigious in the world. Why? Money. And there are always lawyers looking for money, for their clients, yes, but not out of generosity. They are looking for money for themselves, no matter if the lawsuit is frivoulous or well founded.

[mrseverett-2009]

aldewitt - thank you. you have helped bring some maturity to this forum.

[aldewitt-2009]

It may be pallitive care, but generally prosecutors are not the people to evaluate that. I would suspect that the prosecutor had this reviewed by the medical examiner and a couple of docs before he filed the charges. You would have to have good evidence before you'd file a charge like this. Trying a doctor for criminal conduct is tough, and convincing a jury that the doctor did harm is not as easy as it seems. He will have a competent defense, you can count on that.

I do not believe that his race or national origin has anything to do with his competence. If you do not like foreign medical graduates, my view is you shouldn't go to one.