GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, NJ - (March 23, 2006) - The D'Arcy Law Firm, P.C., today announced that it has joined forces with Motley Rice LLC, of Mt. Pleasant, S.C., and Cohen Placitella & Roth of Red Bank, N.J., to file suit in connection with allegedly illegally harvested and unscreened body parts used in transplant surgery. Together, the firms are currently investigating in excess of 500 potential cases in these matters. The suit, filed in District Court of New Jersey, is on behalf of Ned Jackson of Omaha, Nebraska, who allegedly received illegally harvested and untested bones as part of a routine back surgery at Alegent Health Immanuel Medical Center in Omaha. It is alleged that these bones were part of the alleged tissue harvesting scheme that took place in New Jersey and New York, and that is currently subject of an indictment in Brooklyn, New York.
On August 12, 2003, Mr. Jackson underwent what should have been a routine back surgery at Alegent Health Immanuel Medical Center, at which time he received an allograft bone cage in his back. Two years later, in the fall of 2005, he received a call from his surgeon informing him that the bone used in his surgery was obtained from BTS. With its founders currently under indictment, it is alleged that BTS played a role in a human tissue and bone harvesting and distribution scheme that resulted in patients nationwide receiving tissue implants that were allegedly illegally acquired and potentially diseased. Mr. Jackson subsequently was subjected to several rounds of testing which resulted in the news that he had been infected with Hepatitis B and C, a liver disease for which there is no cure. In fact, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 70 percent of all Hepatitis C patients will develop chronic liver disease.
"It is shocking that innocent victims such as Mr. Jackson have had to endure such an emotionally distressing, and now physically debilitating, situation," stated attorney Patrick D'Arcy. "Not only is he faced with a life sentence of liver disease that we believe came from the bone transplant, but he cannot remove these dreadful parts from his back."
Two of the defendants were recently charged in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., for operating a corrupt $4.6 million enterprise that allegedly plotted to carve up cadavers at New York City funeral homes, including those named in this suit, and sell the human bones and skin to tissue banks and distributors for transplants. Hospitals nationwide have reported receipt of this illegally harvested and potentially dangerous tissue. The law firms believe that due to poor industry regulations, the problem may extend far beyond what has been included in the recent BTS case. Anyone who has received a tissue transplant or bone graft and has been inexplicably diagnosed with Hepatitis, HIV, Syphilis or other infectious diseases should take the necessary steps to protect their legal rights.
The D'Arcy Law Firm and Motley Rice will be trying this case together with co-counsel Cohen, Placitella & Roth, P.C., of Red Bank, New Jersey and Rod Rhem of Rehm, Bennett & Moore, LLC, P.C., in Lincoln, Nebraska.
