Manipulation in heart clinic

A senior surgeon at the German Heart Center in Berlin allegedly increased the doses of a cardiac drug for 28 patients from 2010 to 2012 so that they could meet the criteria for an earlier transplant.

The medicine contained a substance called catecholamine which boosts heart function and could induce symptoms of severe heart problems. As a result, the patients’ health was made to be much worse than it really was in order to make it easier for them to jump the queue.

Martin Steltner, prosecutor in the case said that police were trying to find out whether another patient’s life had been put at risk because of queue-jumping. This could lead to the Berlin Heart Center’s doctor being tried for attempted manslaughter.

No other cardiologists have been identified as suspects.

The Berlin Heart Center conducts nearly 100 heart transplants every year and patients have to wait in line to receive a new organ. The German government operates a nationwide list for organ transplants which has around 10,700 patients currently waiting for an organ donation.

A scoring system determines which patient is next in line and helps prevent richer people from getting transplants before poor patients do.

Most liver, kidney and heart transplantations in Germany are dependent on donors since the government does not allow sale or purchase of transplanted organs. However,

A similar scandal took place in 2012 when health specialists were accused of jumping queues for liver transplants. Doctors blame such events for a decline in healthy donors’ willingness to donate.

mg/rc (EDP, dpa)