UCI, Families Working Together

UC Irvine officials said Thursday they are working with 26 families in an effort to sort out whether bodies donated to the medical school were properly cremated and returned.

The families--whose identities UCI has refused to disclose--are among 33 the university contacted after announcing an investigation of the school’s Willed Body Program last month.

UCI officials wrote to the families because they either had requested that ashes be returned to them or asked to be notified when remains were scattered at sea. Officials have said inadequate record-keeping and scrambled computer files make it difficult to tell exactly what happened to the remains.

Also on Thursday, university officials said that 102 people have called a hotline set up to field calls about the scandal, most of them donors or family members.

Of the calls, 21 were from people who wished to become donors to the program, which helps medical research and education. Several others called to ask when the program will begin accepting donations again. Seven others--up from one three weeks ago--wanted their names deleted from donor rolls.

Medical school Dean Dr. Thomas C. Cesario declined to discuss specifics of the university’s interactions with the 26 families.

Cesario said he does not know how many families have been asked to check the code number on tags included in ashes. Two families--one reporting a mismatching tag number--have publicly questioned whether they received the proper remains.

University officials said they are still trying to reach seven of the 33 families that asked to be notified of the disposition of ashes. Most relatives who have been reached have been cooperative, Cesario said.

“I would say there are very few who have been angry,” he said.

The number of families that could be affected by problems with the Willed Body Program could be much larger than the 33, however. About 200 other families donated cadavers during the three-year period under investigation but did not request the return of remains, UCI officials have said. One of those families has filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court alleging mishandling of a donated body. Others are considering joining the suit.

UCI administrators also said Thursday that:

* They are close to naming an external review panel of five to 10 doctors, ethicists and veteran administrators from inside and outside the university to improve oversight at UCI’s College of Medicine, which has weathered four scandals in as many years.

* They will also soon tap a search committee to find an associate dean for administration at the medical school. Cesario and the UCI chancellor proposed the oversight panel and the creation of the associate dean spot in a series of steps designed to tighten oversight at the school before its reputation and ability to attract top-notch employees and students falters.

* They are still hunting for an outside forensic pathologist to help identify five of 27 cadavers still in the Willed Body Program morgue.

At the center of the investigation is Christopher S. Brown, the Willed Body Program director who was fired last month. UCI officials suspect him of selling cadaver parts for personal profit and using his position to steer business to associates. Allegations also have come to light that at least one family paid an outside company to receive what appear to be incorrect ashes back; a second family was improperly billed by an outside company, rather than paying the university, for return of ashes.

The information has been turned over to the district attorney’s office, which is conducting an embezzlement investigation. Brown, who has not been charged, has denied any wrongdoing and has said he informed his superiors of his activities.

“All the records are in the hands of the university, and we hope they cooperate fully with the people who donated to the university,” said Stephen Warren Solomon, one of Brown’s lawyers.

UCI officials also said they received a check last week for $3,850 from a former Brown business partner, Jeffrey E. Frazier. The check was marked as reimbursement for seven spines that Frazier’s cadaver-transport company sold to a Phoenix hospital in June, a transaction cited by UCI officials in announcing Brown’s dismissal.

Staff writer Peter M. Warren contributed to this report.