Stolen bones allegedly transplanted

NEW YORK, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Stolen bones and tissue allegedly have been implanted in hundreds of Americans, prompting recalls and producing a legal quagmire.

Jim Livingston, 44, of Weatherford, Texas, is one of the patients and he is suing in New York, claiming fraud and negligence by those involved in the matter, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported Tuesday.

Livingston has a transplanted bone in his neck that allegedly was stolen from a corpse, the newspaper said.

"How can you sell parts out of a body, just like parts from a stolen car?" he asked the Star-Telegram.

Criminal charges have been filed against Michael Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services in Brooklyn, who authorities say got funeral directors to remove body parts from cadavers without notifying families or screening for disease. Mastromarino allegedly doctored death certificates and forged consent forms. The body parts were then shipped to other companies nationwide and implanted in patients in 2004 and 2005.

Five tissue processors that received human parts from Biomedical Tissue Services issued voluntarily recalls. Medtronic, a Minneapolis distributor that received the parts and also is being sued by Livingston has voluntarily recalled about 16,000 bones, a company spokesman said.