Doctors perform organ donation surgeries on living patients

Four doctors from a Moscow hospital have been charged with premeditated murder

Four doctors of the Moscow 20th hospital will have to go on trial in connection with the criminal case filed on the allegation of illegal transplantation of human organs. The Office of the Public Prosecutor passed the case to the Moscow City Court.

According to the Russian Penal Code, the four doctors have been charged with preparing a premeditated murder, RIA Novosti reports.

According to the information from the Office of the Public Prosecutor, a man named only as Orekhov (born in 1953) was delivered to the 20th hospital of Moscow in April of 2003. The man was diagnosed with a closed cerebral trauma. The patient was in severe condition, the hospital personnel notified the Moscow organ donation center about the potential donor.

”Law-enforcement officers interrupted the preparation of the patient to the organ donation surgery. Doctors of the reanimation hospital of the Moscow interior affairs department found citizen Orekhov outside the reanimation unit. The patient was prepared to donate his kidneys, although the man was still alive, his heart was still beating,” a message from the Office of the Public Prosecutor said. Policemen filed a criminal case on the allegation of premeditated murder.

The organ donation scandal took place in Moscow a year ago, when investigators interrupted a surgery on a living patient. The man's hands were tied, his body was treated accordingly in the abdominal cavity area. A set of surgical tools was found next to the operation table. Doctors of the reanimation hospital of the Moscow interior affairs department took lifesaving efforts, but the man died in 35 minutes.

The doctors of the organ donation center had a right to remove kidneys from the patient's body only after his biological death. The adequate document needs to be signed by medical experts. Investigators said there was no document found on the site. However, law-enforcement officers withdrew blank, albeit signed, forms to certify biological death for organ donation surgeries.