The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "organ transplant" ...
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Crime and Human Organs
Bloomberg Markets magazine shows how impoverished people from Belarus to Nicaragua have been humiliated, maimed, and killed by organ traffickers and the doctors with whom they work. The stories expose the activities of transplant rings that supply wealthy Americans, Europeans, and Israelis with kidneys extracted from the poor.
Tags: Belarus; Nicaragua; Kidney; Organ Donation; Black Market
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Transplant Patients at Risk
Hundreds of people's lives were put in danger because of how Kaiser Permanente mishandled paper work after opening a kidney transplant center in San Francisco in 2004.
Tags: surgery; fraud; medicaid; medicare; organ sharing
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Transplant Trauma: A crisis uncovered at Kaiser
"The kidney transplant program at the nation's largest non-profit HMO, Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente, was supposed to a model organ transplant program for thousands of desperately ill patients. But it April 2006, KPIX-TV discovered that program was in complete disarray and those problems were endangering the lives of the more than 2,000 Kaiser patients in need of transplants."
Tags: organ transplant; HMO; Kaiser Permanentel; kidney
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Patients in Danger: The Caremark Investigation
Caremark, one of the biggest health-care organizations in the nation, was failing to provide necessary health care to customers. KHOU's investigation found that this included Caremark limiting dosages and refill amounts for necessary drugs like insulin for diabetics or anti-rejection drugs for transplant patients, often going against the physician's written prescription. Caremark employees in multiple states had a mandate to change these prescriptions as the company attempted to save money. In addition, "used" medications which had been returned to Caremark were simply relabeled and sent out again without testing. This practice is illegal, because for instance a drug like insulin loses half its effectiveness if not properly refrigerated. Also, Caremark employees informed KHOU of cover-ups that occurred during government inspections.
Tags: Drugs; Caremark; insulin; health care; prescription
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Lives on the Line: Organ donors face unforeseen dangers
Despite the increasing number of organ transplants each year in the United States, there is little regulation by the government. In addition, no national registry exists to track donors after their procedures. This investigation focuses on how this lack of regulation and tracking not only affects who can donate, but also the lives of those who try to help others. This series also chronicles the complications surrounding live organ donations, including permanent physical damage and even death.
Tags: live organ donors; donor data; "kidney cult; " Internet; transplants
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Ethical problems plagued brain donations in Maine
This investigation documented the many problems and flaws with a brain-harvesting program run by the state. Problems range from the fact that the man who coordinated the program was paid on a "per-brain basis" and used unethical tactics to solicit consent from families of the deceased. Furthermore, the state medical examiner was linked to both the brain harvester and the researchers who used the brains.
Tags: surgery; transplants; organ donors; tissue banks; research
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"UPMC Transplant Policy Attacked"
An investigation of one of the top transplant centers in the world; The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center(UPMC), found that the center was frequently using 'marginal livers' due to shortage of organs across the nation. By accepting rejected liver from other centers, UPMC shows high number of patients needing second transplants. Many transplant surgeons UPMC surgeons knowingly use unsuitable organs because those patients would go to the top of the wait list.
Tags: hospitals; surgery; surgeons; hospital; liver; transplant; medical center; patients; organs
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"Anatomy of a Mistake"
60 Minutes reports on the death of 17-year-old Jesica Santillan, who died on the operating table at Duke University Hospital while receiving a heart and lung transplant. Her death, a result of human and systemic failure, came about because her surgeon, Dr. James Jaggers, never properly verified whether the donor organs were of the same blood type of Jesica's. Cross-checking the blood type of the donor and the recipient is a standard procedure which was overlooked by the surgeon, nurses, assisting doctors, Duke University Hospital, and Carolina Donor Services. Jesica's death could have been prevented if the agencies followed national policy, instead of releasing the organs without first verifying the blood type.
Tags: None
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Jessica's Story
This story describes how problems with the national organ transplant system killed a 17-year old girl. The girl was to receive a heart lung transplant and received organs that were against her bloodtype. The story describes how the entire chain from the initial screening to the inappropriate implantation failed to notice the discrepancies.
Tags: organ transplant; Duke University Medical Center; UNOS; FOI; heart transplant; lung transplant; blood groups
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Scarce Goods: Justice, Fairness and Organ Transplantation
Koch's book examines the origins of scarcity of blood and graft organs. The main finding is that the problem has existed at least since a famous legal case of U.S. v. Holmes, 1842, which dealt wit the question of lifeboat ethics - "who should die so that others might survive?" Koch looks at the lifeboat ethics' modern application to the distribution of transplantable organs. Using mapping software, the author reveals that "the scarcity of organs is exacerbated, where not created, by racial and regional inequalities inherent in the American health care and transplant system."
Tags: BOOK; Department of Health and Human Services; United Network for Organ Sharing; race; ethnicity; minorities; National Organ Transplant Act; justice; poverty; health insurance; GIS