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Michael Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, New Jersey, a biomedical supply house, along with three others including Brooklyn funeral home owner Joseph Nicelli, were recently charged with selling body parts for use in transplants in a scheme a district attorney called "something out of a cheap horror movie." Mastromarino was an oral surgeon who went into the tissue business after losing his dentist license, prosecutors said. Nicelli was a partner in the business, according to prescutors. The other defendants were Lee Crucetta and Christopher Aldorasi.
Prosecutors said the defendants made millions of dollars obtaining bodies from funeral parlors in three states. According to Prosecutors, they allegedly forged death certificates and organ donor consent forms to make it look as if the bones, skin, tendons, heart valves and other tissue were legally removed. "I think we can agree that the conduct uncovered in this case is among the most ghastly imaginable," said Rose Gill Hearn, commissioner of the city Department of Investigation. "It was shockingly callous in its disregard for the sanctity of human remains."
X-rays and photos of recently exhumed cadavers show that where leg bones should have been, someone had inserted white plumbing plastic pipes. The pipes, which were the kind used for home plumbing projects available at any hardware store, were crudely reconnected to hip and ankle bones with screws before the legs were sewn back up.
According to authorites, Nicelli was paid up to $1,000 per body to deliver corpses to a secret operating room at his funeral parlor, where Mastromarino would remove body parts. Crucetta, a nurse, and Aldorasi allegedly helped Mastromarino. This year, the Food and Drug Administration closed Biomedical Tissue Services, saying it had evidence the company failed to screen for contaminated tissue. The agency warned that patients who received the company's products could have been exposed to diseases, although the FDA insisted the risk was minimal.
Prosecutors said the defendants forged death certificates and organ-donor consent forms to make it appear the parts were taken legally. The defendants made millions of dollars from the scheme, prosecutors said.The FDA ordered the recall of all of Biomedical Tissue's products in October, saying concerns had been raised that the social-medical histories of some donors were inaccurate. Federal regulations require that a prospective donor's history be examined to ensure the donor doesn't have communicable diseases and that his or her body parts are medically useful.
The FDA recommended that, as a precaution, patients who had received material gathered by Biomedical Tissue be tested for viral hepatitis, syphilis and the viruses that cause AIDS.
If you are the recipient of illegal body parts, you may be enetitled to monetary compensation. For a free case evaluation by an experienced personal injury attorney who may be able to assist you, please fill out the form below. An attorney will review your form and may contact you to discuss your claim.
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