Body Tissue Bank Is Investigated : Ex-UCSD Staffers Accused of Illegally Diverting Bones

Former employees of the UC San Diego Medical Center Skin Bank illegally diverted bones from cadavers donated to UCSD while operating a competing body tissue bank, according to allegations made in court documents by UC police investigators.

The diversion of bones occurred over a period as long as six months, UC police officials said in recently released affidavits filed in support of search warrants on the offices of the two former university staffers.

In at least one case, the redirection of a body affected the timing of a critical skin graft on a burn patient at the medical center because the needed cadaver with its fresh skin could not immediately be located, the affidavits allege.

A decision on whether to prosecute should be reached by the end of this month, the chief San Diego County deputy district attorney handling the case said Thursday. Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Preckel said that, in his view, the allegations contained in the affidavits filed by university investigators in October and December are accurate. The affidavits allege the unlawful removal of human remains, a felony under state law.

However, a separate check by state health investigators did not find evidence of violations, although state officials stress that their check may not have been as exhaustive as that being undertaken by the district attorney.

A law clerk for attorney James Gattey, who is representing the two major individuals under investigation, said Thursday that the affidavits are hearsay and should not be taken as fact until after charges are filed and proven in court.

The lengthy investigation involves a complex series of events that have focused attention on a little-discussed aspect of medicine in San Diego and elsewhere: the method of procuring organs and tissues for transplant and medical research, and possible competition for such parts. Body parts are generally in short supply and a state law that took effect Wednesday requires medical authorities to approach families or friends of dead patients about the possibility of donating a body, or certain organs, for medical use.

For several years, the UCSD Medical Center has operated a regional donation agency that coordinates donations--skin, bone, eyes, kidneys, among others organs--from all hospitals and referral centers to proper recipients and research facilities.

The UCSD Skin Bank takes skin and bone regularly through a process known as harvesting. Skin and bone can be obtained, stored and distributed more easily than organs, which usually are not accepted from people who die after age 55. UCSD uses most of the skin itself at its regional burn center, but the bones often are made available to other hospitals or teaching centers for a processing fee, the only charge that by state law can be assessed. Eyes and corneas are removed from cadavers at other locations.

During an initial internal investigation last spring, UCSD discovered that the medical center lacked necessary state approvals for harvesting skin and bone. It has corrected the situation, said state health officials, who added that the failure to get state approvals did not appear intentional.

From court documents and interviews with individuals involved with the investigation, the UCSD case revolves around a plan by two workers to set up a private tissue bank to harvest bone in what essentially would be competition with the UC center.

One of the workers, Leroy McIntyre, was the tissue bank coordinator at the UCSD Skin Bank from July, 1976, to May 10, 1985. The second, Michael Sullivan, worked as a skin technician from 1984 to May 10, 1985. McIntyre and Sullivan allegedly decided to form a private tissue bank in January, 1985, while both were still employed at UCSD, according to a statement by UC Police Detective Robert L. Jones.

McIntyre approached Lee Dyer, owner of a private ambulance service that transported cadavers for UCSD and other facilities, as a third partner.

In an interview earlier this week, Dyer said that McIntyre told him the UCSD Skin Bank could not make use of all the bodies being donated to it and therefore a private bank was needed to handle the excess. Dyer said he believed McIntyre had UC approval to harvest such bones privately.

“I thought that harvesting would only be done on the bodies that the university did not want,” Dyer said. “And that idea made sense to me, even though the university obviously doesn’t want any competition.”

If body donations went to private tissue banks as well as to the university, UC might have to pay processing costs to a private bank in order to receive needed skin or other organs.

Dyer said that McIntyre approached him in February with several packages of bones that had come from UCSD Medical Center. Dyer arranged the four transfers of bones to Medical Arts Hospital in Dallas for a payment of $22,300. UC officials suspect the bones were harvested illegally from cadavers donated to UCSD.

Dyer and McIntyre broke their relationship in March because of a dispute over the percentage split of any processing fees, the affidavit says. In addition, Dyer said that two factors made him suspicious of the propriety of the operation.

Dyer said that a check with state officials in March indicated that McIntyre did not yet have the necessary state letter of approval to operate a tissue bank. Secondly, Dyer found in April, after McIntyre had received state approval but was still employed at UCSD, that potential donors Dyer was referring to the UCSD organ acquisition center through his transportation service were being rejected, and relatives were told that skin was not needed.

“Yet I checked with the coroner’s office later and found eight cases where the bones had been harvested, but not the skin,” Dyer said. “I knew that skin is always in short supply, so I couldn’t figure out why the bodies would show up in that fashion.”

Dyer said he went to UCSD officials with information on the eight bodies, saying that he suspected McIntyre, in his capacity as coordinator of the UCSD Skin Bank, was turning down potential donors regardless of need by UCSD and then calling back the referring hospital in his capacity as head of his newly formed San Diego Regional Tissue Bank. McIntyre’s tissue bank had received state approval April 2, and Dyer said that McIntyre was harvesting bones at a local mortuary ambulance service.

The UC police affidavit lists the same eight cases from April and early May, before McIntyre and Sullivan resigned their posts to run their new business. Dyer said that he provided such information to Dr. John Hansbrough, director of the burn center and skin bank, in early May.

Hansbrough did not return phone calls Thursday. Caroline Bear, associate administrator of UCSD Medical Center, said in a brief interview earlier this week that “I can say that Lee Dyer talked with Dr. Hansbrough in early May . . . the information did help stimulate (the internal investigation), yes.”

Dyer said that Hansbrough was anxious that the allegations not become public, because such charges could affect the public’s willingness to donate bodies. Dyer said that not until a July 24 incident did UCSD decide to ask for a criminal investigation, which began in early August with the assignment of Detective Jones.

On July 24, Dyer’s ambulance service was asked to transport a cadaver from Palomar Memorial Hospital in Escondido directly to UCSD because skin was urgently needed for a burn victim’s surgery. However, Dyer said that his driver received a call from McIntyre, who identified himself both to the driver and to a nurse as from the “UCSD Regional Tissue Bank.” Dyer said his driver was familiar with McIntyre’s name and assumed the call was legitimate.

Dyer said that McIntyre told of a change of plans by UCSD doctors and ordered that the body be taken instead to Hillside Hospital in San Diego. The driver was met by McIntyre at Hillside, who took possession of the body.

Dyer said that his office received a call from UCSD doctors wanting to know where the body was because critical surgery was being delayed. In checking, Dyer learned from the driver that it had been taken to Hillside. UCSD doctors personally went to Hillside and took the body, which UC police say was in a morgue refrigerator awaiting harvesting by McIntyre. Dyer said the ability of McIntyre to locate the Palomar Hospital body so quickly after it was offered to UCSD indicated to him that McIntyre still had contacts within his former office. The district attorney would not comment on the scope of the investigation other than what is contained in the public affidavits.

Because of his early relationship with McIntyre, Dyer remains a subject of investigation by the district attorney. Dyer did waive his right to remain silent and freely talked with UC police investigators in October, saying he had nothing to hide.

“Maybe I used poor judgment at first (with McIntyre), but I assumed that the (skin bank) medical director and the administration would be in touch with all levels of their department and have approved McIntyre’s arrangement,” Dyer said.

Dyer still believes a competing tissue bank to handle the occasional unused body parts from UCSD is viable, and he has an application pending with state health officials for his own bank.

In the meantime, at the request of the district attorney, those state officials--from the Laboratory Field Services--investigated the files at McIntyre’s tissue bank. Ron Hamblin of the field service lab said that “our checks showed that the forms (required records of donors and donor approval authorization) being used were appropriate.”

“We may proceed to look at a few isolated cases depending on the district attorney’s investigation,” Hamblin said. “But we have not so far contributed anything to the D.A.’s case, although we thought we might be able to.”

Efforts to reach McIntyre this week proved unsuccessful. According to Hamblin, McIntyre wants to extend his operations beyond bone harvesting to skin and organs as well. That application is also pending, he said.