As reported in the Philadedlphia Inquirer (http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20071005_Body-parts_case_generates_hundreds_of_civil_lawsuits.html), Larry Cohan, partner in Anapol Schwartz, a Philadelphia law firm, has about 200 clients, 130 of them have joined the ranks of civil litigation in a federal lawsuit of people who have been implanted with possibly tainted body parts pilfered from infected and illegally obtained cadavers. Experts believe that body parts taken from an infected cadaver can transmit disease and no cleaning process can render them completely safe. The lawsuits all have generated from the criminal case against Michael Mastromarino and his now defunct company, Biomedical Tissues Services, of Fort Lee, N.J. Mastromarino lost his dental license over drug charges. He has been accused of selling body parts taken illegally from nine funeral homes in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia.
Lawyer to Mastromarino claims that his client was victimized by the funeral homes and that it was the funeral homes' responsibility to get consent from the deceases families. Three funeral home directors in Philadelphia were charged with being a part of the alleged scheme.
The total number of patients suing is unknown, but the federal Food and Drug Administration has said that as many as 13,000 patients could have received parts from Mastromarino's company.
Cohan says that Anapol Schwartz law firm has begun filing lawsuits on the donor side for the family members of the deceased, whose body parts were harvested without permission. Mastromarino has been accused of stealing from 1,077 bodies, which could mean hundreds more lawsuits are on the horizon.
