Doctors are said to have used heart implants from dead patients

The Romanian authorities are investigating a network of doctors who are said to have performed non-medically necessary heart operations and inserted implants into patients that were previously removed from corpses. According to the public prosecutor's office, a suspect was taken into custody on Saturday evening. The cardiologist at a hospital in Iasi used a total of 238 medical implants "of unknown origin" between 2017 and 2022, the investigators said.

According to the prosecutor, some of the implants used by the doctor, such as pacemakers or defibrillators, were taken from dead patients. By illegally reusing it, he put the lives of the recipients at risk. The cardiologist is suspected of leading a network with at least four other doctors who are said to have obtained implants for him.

A large part of the operations to insert implants was medically unfounded, the investigating authority said. The patients were told “fictitious diagnoses”, and in some cases heart symptoms were specifically produced by the administration of medication.

Romania, which has been part of the European Union since 2007, spends the least money on its healthcare system in an EU comparison. The country's public health system has been rocked by numerous scandals and corruption scandals in recent years.

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