Betadine, Dr. Roozrokh?
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
JC Jones MA RN
Two years ago in San Luis Opisbo, California, the paths of Dr. Hootan Roozrokh (transplant surgeon from Stanford University) and 25 year old Ruben Navarro (disabled patient with adrenoleukodystrophy [ALD]) crossed in Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center. Today, Mr. Navarro is dead and Dr. Roozrokh faces three felony counts relating to his care and a civil suit filed by Mr. Navarro's mother. Dr. Roozrokh was not working for the medical center and was not in any way involved in the care of Mr. Navarro, who had been transferred from an assisted living center to the medical center following a cardiac and respiratory arrest. Mr. Navarro had been placed on life-support. Dr. Roozrokh was working for a regional organ procurement group, the California Transplant Donor Network.
Facts:
- It is against California state law for transplant doctors to direct treatment of patients until they are declared dead
- This restriction is in place to protect vulnerable patients and families so that organ retrieval does not take precedence over patient care.
- Dr. Roozrokh was not authorized by Sierra Vista Medical Center to care for patients or order medications
- Dr. Arturo Martinez and Dr. Roozrokh are both under investigation by the California State Medical Board
- Both of these transplant surgeons were involved in the now discredited Kaiser Permanente San Francisco kidney transplant program.
- KP announced closure of the program May 12, 2006
- Dr. Martinez was director of the program. In August 2006, KP was ordered to pay a $5 million penalty for mismanagement of the program
- $2 million fine
- $3 million to promote organ donations
- The United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees organ allocation, reprimanded the California Transplant Donor Network for breaking protocol in the case of Mr. Navarro.
- Mr. Navarro was taken from ICU to the OR by the transplant team. It was then that Dr. Roozrokh began directing "end-of-life care", according to federal investigators. At 11:10 PM 100 mg of morphine and 40 mg of Ativan were administered and his breathing tube was removed. Navarro's heart kept beating, so he was given another 100 mg of morphine and 40 mg of Ativan by the ICU nurse who accompanied them to the OR.
- Morphine causes respiratory depression
- the dosages given of both of the medications are about 10 x the usual therapuetic dosage
- Mr. Navarro weighed 80 lbs.
- 140 mg. of Morphine is the recommended dosage for anesthetizing a 1200 lb. horse.
- After 30 minutes, the organs are no longer viable. Mr. Navarro's heart kept beating. He was wheeled back to the ICU. He died the next morning. His organs were never harvested.
- It is routine to administer Betadine via nasogastric tube into the stomach of an organ donor - after the donor is dead
- Dr. Roozrokh did the procedure while Mr. Navarro was still alive resulting in iodine poisoning
- symptoms are abdominal pain, diarrhea, pulmonary edema..."there may be esophageal stricture should the patient survive the acute stage..."
A disabled man entered a hospital for care. He died. A multidisciplinary health care team may have hastened his death...that's sick. That's predatory. That's appalling. It's against the law. And it's wrong.
Thank you djfiander for use of photo Human organ for transplant.
Labels: Dr. Martinez, Dr. Roozrokh, organ transplants
3 Comments:
At Sun Jan 24, 06:11:00 PM 2010,
Anonymous said…
OK,
Now that the case was dismissed are you going to remove this blog? I think now is proved that no crime was committed.
Please remove this ASAP
Dr Fernando Botero
At Sun Jan 24, 06:49:00 PM 2010,
Lauren C. Turner said…
Healthline, please update this page with the jury's decision that Dr. Hootan Roozrokh was not guilty and did not commit ethical fallacies. The Organ Donor network and the patient's mother both withdrew their lawsuits due to Dr. Roozrokh's innocence, which is rare. And statements were issued saying Dr. Roozrokh should continue saving lives by practicing as the talented surgeon that he is. (For more information, please see Dateline's recent coverage.)
Unfortunately, salacious commentary and sensationalist coverage by the press have unfairly destroyed the reputation of a competent, dedicated surgeon. By failing to update this page, you are providing incomplete information that can mislead the public. Fortunately, the opinions you expressed are far more controlled than those expressed in sensationalist blogs.
I imagine you did not nor do you intend to inaccurately present Dr. Roozrokh; in fact, you are likely unaware of the need to update this blog. But now you have an opportunity to help restore the reputation that was taken from him. As a reputable health publication, I hope you will respect this physician and the medical community by updating the facts.
Your blog appears at the top of Google search queries for "Dr. Roozrokh," which means your influence is great. Searches for Dr. Roozrokh will certainly spike due to Dateline's segment. (For evidence that media coverage drives searches for Dr. Roozrokh's name, go to http://bit.ly/8LupJg.)
You might consider providing an update on this page *and* writing another post that highlights Dr. Roozrokh's story. There are many worthwhile ethical issues (medical and journalistic) to explore in a follow-up post.
Because this page ranks high in Google search results, it would be helpful to provide a link to your second post on this page. That will help direct traffic to your new post, which could help the updated article improve its position on search engine results pages.
You stand to benefit as well: because Dateline will drive people to search, and because people most often click the top search result link, your site will receive more traffic, which further helps you stay in first position.
Thank you for continuing to provide interesting health education and commentary to the online public.
With respect,
Lauren C. Turner
At Wed Jan 27, 04:04:00 PM 2010,
Lynn Marino said…
Please remove these slanderous comments about Dr. Roozrokh! I just viewed the Dateline episode regarding his 2 year ordeal and he was obviously a victim of ignorant and possible prejudiced staff, a public who'll believe anything of a professional especially when they're barraged with media lies and nonsense from the suspicious character of Nancy Grace. I hope Dr. Roozrokh reads these comments and is pleased to know the viewing audience saw things as they truly were and not as the news pimps want us to see it.
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