Biomedical Tissue Services
Biomedical Tissue Services (BTS) was a
History
In late 2005, the
To conceal their practices, BTS employees forged a variety of the necessary certificates and replaced bone with PVC piping to conceal the harvesting from family members of the deceased.
Michael Mastromarino,
On September 4, 2008,
According to the FDA, all tissue products collected and distributed by BTS were recalled and will be monitored for a complete accounting of all graft material.[6] BTS sold its products to five companies; two of the companies were Life Cell Corporation, of New Jersey, and Regeneration Technologies, of Florida. Overall, about 10,000 patients in the United States and Canada received graft tissue from BTS.[12]
BTS was not an accredited member, nor did the company ever apply to be a member, of the American Association of Tissue Banks. Robert Rigney, who heads the association, said he doubts anyone who received tissue donations originating from the company is in any kind of health danger, because the processors the company dealt with would have subjected the tissues to their own screening processes.[15]
However, transplant patient Betty Pfaff was one person who suffered severe infection, septic shock, underwent dialysis and ultimately paralysis due to having received an implant made from infected cadaver tissue from Mastromarino's company.[16][17] Although a recent judicial ruling has increased the difficulty of patients in proving pain and suffering from receiving bad donor tissue in cases like these, Pfaff's lawsuit is still[when?] pending.[citation needed]
Other patients who received BTS-derived tissue and body parts include a Colorado woman who had to repeat her
On January 8, 2010, Michael Mastromarino's now ex-wife Barbra Mastromarino appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in a segment "Husbands' Secret Lives" [19] and discussed the effect of the actions on her life and their sons' lives. After confronting his father about the reasons for his crimes while Dr. Mastromarino was incarcerated at Rikers Island, their older son subsequently refused to speak to his father. During the broadcast, Barbra Mastromarino also listened to and apologized to the daughter of a victim of her husband's crimes, while mentioning she had no knowledge of her husband's illegal acts. Barbra Mastromarino acknowledged ignoring warning signs about the character of her ex-husband early in their relationship.
On the morning of July 7, 2013, Michael Mastromarino died at St. Luke's Hospital after suffering from
In popular culture
- Plot of Law & Order (Season 17, Episode 11: "Remains of the Day")[citation needed] “Remains of the Day” (air date: January 5, 2007)
- Story is used in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Season 7, Episode 14: "Meet Market")[21] in February, 2007.
- Similar storyline in Bones: "The Graft in the Girl" (Season 1, Episode 20), airing April 26, 2006.
- Similar storyline in Body of Proof: "Skin and Bones" (Season 3, Episode 7).
- In documentary TV series American Greed "The Body Snatcher: Michael Mastromarino" (Season 3, Episode 18), aired 25 February 2009.[citation needed]
- The case was the subject of the documentary Bodysnatchers of New York (2010) by Toby Dye[22]
- Featured in an episode of Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry? (The body snatcher's wife)[23]
See also
- Organ harvesting
- Body snatching
- Tri-State Crematory
References
- ^ a b Holtzclaw, D; Toscano, N; Eisenlohr, L; Callan, D (2008), "The Safety of Bone Allografts Used in Dentistry: A Review" Archived 2008-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, JADA 139: 1192-1199
- ^ a b New York Daily News Boss of notorious body snatching ring gets 54 years for harvesting, March 19, 2008
- ^ a b BBC Plea deal in US body parts case, January 16, 2008
- ^ Associated Press, "A Macabre Theater of Greed" Archived October 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, December 23, 2005
- ISSN 1877-0568.
- ^ a b c FDA News "FDA Orders Biomedical Tissue Services, Ltd., to Cease Manufacturing and to Retain Existing Inventories of Human Cells, Tissues and Cellular and Tissue-Based Products (HCT/Ps)", February 3, 2005
- ^ BBC "Alistair Cooke's bones 'stolen'", December 22, 2005
- ^ The New York Times "Alistair Cooke's Bones Were Stolen for Implantation, His Family Says", December 23, 2005
- ^ Times Online.com "Bodysnatchers steal Alistair Cooke's bones", December 22, 2005
- Horizon(18th March 2008). BBC. September 17, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
- ^ New York Daily News, "Boss of notorious body snatching ring gets 54 years for harvesting", March 19, 2008 reports an alternative version of "Mastromarino."
- ^ a b The Joplin Globe, "Man who plundered body parts for profit pleads guilty", August 29, 2008
- ^ CNN Mastermind of body parts scheme sentenced to prison Archived 2008-06-29 at the Wayback Machine, June 27, 2007
- Cherry Hill Courier Post, "Lawyers debate tainted-tissue cases in N.J court", September 5, 2008
- ^ The Washington Post, "In New York, a Grisly Traffic in Body Parts: Illegal Sales Worry Dead's Kin, Tissue Recipients", January 27, 2006
- ^ Medium, "The man who made millions stealing skin and bones from corpses", September 2, 2018
- Philadelphia Magazine, "Body Snatchers", March 25, 2008
- Philadelphia Magazine. Metrocorp. Archived from the originalon 2011-09-29. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
- ^ "Husbands′ Secret Lives The Oprah Winfrey Show, January 08, 2010". Retrieved 2010-07-31.
- ^ New York Daily News, "Bone snatcher Michael Mastromarino dies of bone cancer as victims see sad irony", July 7, 2013
- ISBN 9781440638947.
- ^ The Grierson Awards 2011: Winners Archived 2022-07-19 at the Wayback Machine The Grierson Trust
- ^ Wife of ‘Body Snatcher’ details how she learned Michael Mastromarino illegally harvested corpses in new book Fox News