One of the doctors who allegedly implanted heart pacemakers taken from corpses into patients was detained

The doctor would have reused 238 pacemakers. In addition, he is accused of bribery, but also of complicity in the illegal construction of a villa in a protected natural area.

It is about Dr. Tesloianu, former head of the Interventional Cardiology Laboratory within the Department of Cardiology, “Sfântul Spiridon” Hospital.

The doctor will be taken to the Bucharest Court with a proposal for preventive arrest for 30 days.

“In the factual situation retained by the prosecutors, it is mentioned that the suspect would have exercised his duties, intentionally, in a defective way, by implanting, between 2017 and August 2022, a number of 238 devices extracted from corpses or the source of which is unknown, ignoring the risk of causing serious medical problems or even death to patients, thus proceeding to reuse them, although this is prohibited by primary legislation. At the same time, the manufacturers of medical devices record on the packaging of the devices the prohibition of their reuse. From the evidence administered in the case so far, it has emerged that the suspect operationalized a network made up of medical personnel who provided him with implantable cardiac devices, extracted including from deceased patients, without complying with the legal provisions and without the consent, prior to death, of the persons in question or of those belonging to them”, the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice sent.

Later, he performed medical procedures for the reimplantation of these devices, without registering them in the hospital management (in the absence of provenance documents) and, consequently, without going through the internal procedural flow, there being no compliance notices from the Ministry of Health, certificates guarantee and documents certifying the completion of the sterilization procedures, the prosecutors also say.

“A large part of the interventions to insert some implantable cardiac devices, including those extracted from deceased patients, carried out/recommended by the doctor, were not necessary, proceeding to their operationalization either by recording fictitious diagnoses or by prior recommendation of some drugs that cause reactions of a nature to lead to the specific symptomatology”, the Prosecutor’s Office also transmitted.

Judicial sources told PRO TV News that one of Dr. Tesloianu’s residents, who performed interventions to implant devices, although he was not allowed to, was placed under judicial control for 60 days and is prohibited from practicing during this period. He is accused of taking bribes from five patients.

And a doctor from the Sfânta Maria Emergency Military Hospital in Brașov is suspected by the investigators of having performed such surgical interventions. In his case, the prosecutors of the criminal investigation section will decline the file at the Military Prosecutor’s Office.

In total, six doctors and four patients are being prosecuted in this case, for taking or giving bribes.

Prosecutors say everything was done in violation of medical work procedures and indications for the use of cardiac medical devices.

The two cardiologists were familiar with patients who had implanted cardiac devices. When one of them died, with the help of other medical personnel they would extract them from their body and sterilize them.

Then, in their patient lists, they looked for those who needed pacemakers or defibrillators.

Between 2,000 lei and 3,000 euros would be demanded from them to implant the device extracted from a corpse. The asking price was like for a new device – which the Health Center settles anyway.

Prosecutors and policemen descended on 24 addresses on Friday morning. Employees from the Regina Maria Military Hospital in Brașov and the Saint Spiridon Emergency Hospital in Iasi are targeted.

The investigation found that not all patients who were implanted with cardiac medical devices recovered from cadavers would have needed them.

They would have been given certain drugs to slow their heart rate and thus convince them that they needed a pacemaker.

In some cases, patients who received cardiac devices extracted from cadavers suffered infections and required repeated hospitalizations, sources in the investigation say.