Illegal kidney transplants disclosed in Bulgarian state-Run hospital

January 7, 2006

General Secretary of Bulgaria's Health Ministry Krassimir Gigov revealed on Friday that a total of 20 illegal kidney transplants were carried out at a state-run hospital between 2004 and 2005.

Bulgaria's law on donation and transplantation was violated during these operations, said Gigov, who is also the new chairman of St. Ekaterina Hospital's board of directors.

He said the country's executive transplantation agency had not been informed of the surgery and there were no written documents proving non-kinship between the donors and the patients.

The donors and the patients involved in the illegal surgery are not Bulgarian, and the hospital received 130,000-150,000 euros (156,000-180,000 U.S. dollars) for each operation.

Chief of the executive transplantation agency Yanko Nachkov was dismissed last December for malpractice and former chief of the hospital's board of directors Alexander Chirkov was fired in November.

The medical scandal was not unveiled until a Russian flight passenger who claimed to be an organ donor to St. Ekaterina Hospital was arrested at Sofia airport.

The Bulgarian parliament approved its law for donation and transplantation on April 30, 2003, regulating the entire procedure of donations and transplantations of human organs, tissues and cells.

According to official statistics, there are about 800 patients in Bulgaria awaiting kidney transplants, 10 for hearts, 50-100 for livers and 300-500 for bones.

Source: Xinhua

Copyright © 2006 People's Daily Online.

This article posted February 5, 2206.