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NEW MEXICO BODY PARTS CAPER.

By Greg Piche'

It came up ?heads? when an employee at a medical waste disposal facility called Stericycle in Kansas noticed a partially burned head and torso at disposal site.  Stericycle normally disposes of dead tissue, but this was more like raisins in the oatmeal and he quickly perceived something was wrong.  Further investigation led to the discovery of 6 additional roughly severed heads and a number of torsos in a truck outside of the facility. Shades of Alistair Cook! Cook you will remember as the genial host of Masterpiece Theater on PBS whose body was dismembered and proliferated by a gang of New Jersey body snatchers a couple of years ago.

The Kansas parts apparently belonged to a New Mexico body part supplier to research called Bio Care Southwest. the 31 year old owner of the Company, Paul Montano was charged by police in Albuquerque with multiple counts of fraud.   At least three of the original part owners were identified as being late citizens of New Mexico.  All of their bodies had been ?donated:? to science. It appears that the methodology for securing the donations was through connections with funeral home directors, eager to assist the aggrieved survivors.  It is unknown what compensation, if any, was provided to the funeral home people for their assistance. Bio Care Southwest apparently has ten employees and earns about $100,000.00 per year. Seems as though everybody is cutting corners in a down economy. When a company like Bio Care asserts that ?you will always be treated with dignity, respect and honesty?, that often should be a cue that something may be amiss.

Full post as published by Healthcare Law Blog on April 02, 2010 (boomark / email).