Donor’s Death Prompts Civil Lawsuit Against Surgeon
Monday, May 5th, 2008In California, courts ruled that a Civil Lawsuit could, indeed, be filed against the surgeon who is accused of hastening an organ donor’s death so that their organs could be harvested and subsequently implanted into waiting recipients.
In the suit, Dr. Hootan Roozrokh is accused of administering a fatal dose of morphine to a patient who was in a coma to bring his death to fruition quicker. Dr. Roozrokh was an employee of Kaiser Permanente and was on-site to handle the organ transfer once the patient had expired.
In the fact finding of this civil case, it was observed that Dr. Roozrokh ordered three doses of morphine injected into his patient’s IV within 15 minutes; despite the fact that the patient was already in a coma and not in any obvious pain. The patient, Ruben Navarro was not brain dead yet faced a definite poor prognosis for recovery.
The question that remains, and that this case will hinge on, is whether there was any level of criminal negligence on the part of Dr. Roozrokh and whether that negligence would be grounds for a civil lawsuit penalty. Since his arrest in February, the Doctor has been mounting a rigorous defense
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/05/12/prca0512.htm
Source: AMNews
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