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Transplants Cancelled, Patients Die Because of Russian Doctors' Trial - TV

Posted on: Monday, 7 November 2005, 06:00 CST

A group of doctors has been acquitted in Moscow for the second time, after being accused of deliberately letting patients die to provide organs for transplants. The case has virtually brought organ donations and transplants in Russia to a halt, national TV said, as medics are reluctant to offer organs for fear of the same thing happening to them. In an emotionally-charged report, doctors described how for two years organs have been all but unavailable and patients awaiting transplants spoke of how their hopes of life were ebbing away. A man blamed the "assault" on the doctors for the death of his wife. A young woman said she had worked and contributed to the state, but the state in return is burying her. The following is an excerpt from the report, broadcast by Russian Channel One TV on 6 November:

[Presenter] An event took place in Moscow this week that could not be described as political. But for thousands of people across the country it represented, literally, a choice between life and death. The Moscow City Court handed down a second acquittal in the organ transplant doctors case. They had been charged with trying to harvest organs from patients who were still alive. The defence managed to prove to the court that the doctors had done all in their power to save the dying. The acquittal is crucial not only for the defendants and their colleagues. The outcome of the trial was awaited also by the incurably ill, as the trial delayed their life- saving operations. Roman Toloknov continues.

[Correspondent] He's been living on this ward for nearly 18 years. Three times a week, Nikolay has to come to the dialysis machine to filter his blood. Otherwise, he'll die. [Passage omitted]

All this time Nikolay, along with hundreds of others at the Institute of Transplantology, has been waiting in line for a donor organ. Eighteen years on dialysis is a record. Usually people with Nikolay's diagnosis live for no more than 10 years.

This a scene from a film for medical students. The instruments record brain death but the heart is still beating. You can maintain life support for several hours and in that time there is the chance to transplant living organs into dying patients. But there is no law that precisely regulates this process. So on one occasion internal organs became the business of the internal affairs organs.

[Valeriy Shumakov, director of Science and Research Institute for Transplantology and Artificial Organs, captioned] A large group of OMON [riot police] in masks and with arms appeared in the intensive care ward of Hospital No 20. The intensive care process had already finished. The corpse was cold.

[Correspondent] The police came to Hospital No 20 on 11 April 2003. They claimed that doctors spent too little time trying to save the patient's life. The intensive care staff were charged with premeditated murder for the purpose of organ removal.

[Shumakov] They were preparing to provide an organ for transplant, to save someone's life. And they get prosecuted. Well, many are now wondering if the same will happen to them as well and all kinds of charges will be pinned on them too. Who needs it?

[Correspondent] Dr Shumakov has carried out hundreds of transplants. It's what his institute specializes in. And it is here that the queue for life stands. Several hundred are waiting for operations. But since the doctors were charged, the calls from the intensive care ward that used to provide donor organs have stopped.

[Nikolay Tarabarko, department head at Transplantology Institute, captioned] They're not reporting back to us, as if there's nobody there. But we know that nothing has changed and everything continues as before. People are still dying on the roads. There has always been a certain proportion of deaths in violent circumstances, and there still is.

[Correspondent] For many, the guilt or otherwise of the doctors was a matter not of criminality but of life or death. Relatives of those who urgently needed help approached the Health Ministry and went to the trial. [Video shows protesters] So did relatives of those who did not live to get that help.

[Vladimir, captioned as widower] If there hadn't been this assault on the doctors at Hospital No 20 and a de-facto freeze on donation, then my Mariya would still be alive, no doubt about that.

[Correspondent] Vyacheslav Koval is one of the lucky ones. He received a heart transplant a few years before the intensive care doctors went on trial. A portrait of Dr Shumakov, who carried out the transplant, has pride of place in his home. Six years ago, he gave Vyacheslav a new life. [Passage omitted]

It's hard to say how long a new heart will last. But Vyacheslav knows full well that sooner or later he will need another transplant, which means that once again he will join the queue for a new, donated, heart. [Passage omitted]

There are almost no stories like Vyacheslav's today. Because there are no organs for transplant.

[Young woman, captioned as Yelena, patient at Transplantology and Artificial Organs Institute, lying in hospital bed] If there's the chance of a transplant we just live and wait and wait, maybe for a year or two. For the chance of a transplant. But they've taken away that chance. They've taken away our hope.

[Correspondent] Kirill's mother didn't lose hope even when she realised that there was virtually no chance of finding a kidney for her dying son. For several months, as she prepared for the operation, she prayed only that her kidney would be suitable. Now, she prays that the kidney will be accepted.

[Nadezhda, captioned as donor, sitting on bed next to boy in hospital face mask] If I had the money I'd have bought a kidney. But I don't, and I would have given mine anyway. So would my sons and my husband. Mine was suitable, so I went ahead with it.

[Correspondent] Buying an organ is expensive and also illegal. But an underground trade in kidneys, livers and spleens operates openly on the Internet. Here the average price for a kidney is 30,000 euros.

Aleksandr came to Moscow from Stavropol to get a better price for himself. Back home he was offered only 3,000 for a kidney, not enough to pay off his debts. In Moscow he hopes for better. He's stated his blood group on the webpage, and is awaiting the call. If he takes up an offer, Aleksandr will be given papers confirming an illness. After that he is examined, like everyone, and undergoes the operation.

[Young man, presumably Aleksandr but not captioned, footage flagged as "archive"] I came here to [changes tack] it's impossible to earn money so I decided to sell my organ. Any organ, for good money.

[Correspondent] This hospital is for those who did not have the money, a relative or donor, and for those who are waiting for a heart. Their only chance is a heart from a death in intensive care. But there aren't any. The talk here is that the controversy surrounding the transplant trial has taken away their last chance of a life.

[Tearful young woman, captioned as Alla, patient at Transplantology and Artificial Organs Institute] When this situation started, it came not just as a shock. It's a sentence, in effect. I can make my contribution to the state and society, yes? I can work or do something, and be needed. But they're just burying me.

[Correspondent] If a patient can't wait any longer, and if the case history goes critical, then an artificial heart is transplanted. Dr Drobyshev carries out three a month. [Passage omitted]

They experiment on calves, and count every day the animals live. [Video shows calf standing in laboratory pen] The record lifespan so far with an artificial heart is 102 days. The trial of the doctors from Hospital No 2 lasted for over two years.

In medical parlance this is called post-traumatic syndrome. [Video shows woman sobbing] This is how the doctors left the courtroom back in March, after their first acquittal. First, because the prosecution disputed the verdict. This week the doctors were acquitted again. In the intervening eight months, in one institute alone six people died for want of a transplant.

[Lyubov Pravdenko, intensive care doctor, captioned] Transplants are at a standstill. I hope that work will resume after this trial, as it was before.

[Correspondent] Hope that transplantology will revive has not been lost everywhere in the country. But the doctors still face another trial. The verdict is awaited by thousands of ill people who understand full well that many of them may not live to see the intensive care doctors finally exonerated.

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

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