At least two British patients who recently discovered they had been given transplants of potentially contaminated pieces of bone from stolen US corpses are considering legal action, their solicitors said yesterday.
The exact number of UK patients who received bone from Biomedical Tissue Services (BTS) in New Jersey - which was supplied by gangs who raided mortuaries for bodies, including that of the veteran broadcaster Alistair Cooke - is unknown. However, the UK authorities have listed 25 hospitals which bought body parts from the company.
Although the proper tests for infections such as HIV and hepatitis were not carried out, not all the hospitals have informed the transplant patients involved. They base their decision on the assessment of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) that the bone had been rendered harmless by sterilisation.
Irwin Mitchell, a national firm of solicitors, said yesterday that two patients were ready to take legal action in the US and they were talking to others. One of the patients, Suzanne Green, 32, from Caerphilly, was transplanted with bone from BTS during treatment at the University hospital of Wales for a fractured spine and ankle in September last year.
"I can't believe what is happening, it's horrific," she said. "I did not even know I had received a bone graft during my operation until September of this year. I am now in torment wondering whether I have contracted anything from these illegal implants. I am awaiting the results of blood tests to see whether I currently have any of the possible infections identified."
The news came as seven US undertakers, including the one who took bones from Cooke, pleaded guilty to being part of a racket that plundered cadavers to sell body parts to medical institutions for transplants.
Under a plea bargain, the seven agreed to cooperate with investigators and to surrender their undertaker licences in exchange for lighter sentences.
Cooke's body was sent to a funeral home in Manhattan for cremation, but without the consent or knowledge of his family some of his bones were removed and sold illegally for medical use. His body was among more than 1,000 corpses believed to have been used in this way.
Investigators say the funeral directors were paid $1,000 (£536) a corpse. But body parts could fetch up to $15,000.
Yesterday, the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles Hynes, revealed that the New York Mortuary in Manhattan, as well as two other funeral parlours in the Bronx and Rochester in New York state, were involved in the racket. It is understood the seven funeral directors who pleaded guilty were associated with these homes.
"These ghoulish thieves thought they could pull off the crime of the century, stealing bones from the dead, without any thoughts to their victims' families or the transplant recipients who would receive possibly tainted bone and tissue grafts," Mr Hynes said.
Clive Garner, from Irwin Mitchell, said there was still a risk of contamination from the bone grafts in spite of sterilisation.
"We understand that there is still a small but nonetheless present risk that there may be diseases that could be passed from these tissues," he said.
Infections like HIV and hepatitis have a relatively long gestational period, he said.
