Surgeon Accused of Causing Death to Hasten Transplant

By Anastacia Mott Austin

It’s the stuff of horror movies: an evil, deranged surgeon purposely kills people to harvest their organs. In the 1978 movie "Coma," patients were kept in comas and shipped off to a mysterious location where their organs were removed.

A California woman is alleging that something similar happened to her son. Rosa Navarro says that her son Ruben’s death was purposely hastened in order for a transplant doctor to have access to his organs.

Dr. Hootan Roozrokh is accused of giving Ruben Navarro too many medications for the purpose of speeding up the process of his death.

Dr. Roozrokh denies the charges and has plead not guilty. A preliminary hearing is taking place this week, at which Dr. Roozrokh faces three felony counts, including dependent adult abuse, prescribing controlled substances without medical purpose, and using a harmful substance on a patient.

Ruben Navarro was born with the neurological disorder adrenoleukodystrophy, which worsened as he got older. He was eventually placed in an assisted living facility.

He apparently suffered a cardiac arrest in 2006 and was taken to a hospital. His mother says she was told by doctors there that Ruben would not survive. She later received a call from an organ donor organization, and consented to donate his organs.

The charges against Dr. Roozrokh stem from a witness account given by a nurse at the Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, where Navarro was being treated.

Jennifer Endsley, a nurse who says she was in the operating room when Navarro’s ventilator was turned off, told police that the transplant team was in the room at the time, which is a violation of transplant protocol. Typically, hospital staff turn the ventilator off and must declare a time of death before a transplant team is allowed in.

Not only was Dr. Roozrokh in the room, but he allegedly ordered medications, including Ativan and morphine, when the patient’s heart did not immediately stop. The complaint against the doctor also alleges that he ordered Navarro be given Betadine internally, which has no therapeutic effect and may in fact be lethal.

Navarro died eight hours later. Unfortunately, by that time his organs had deteriorated to the point that they were not usable for transplant.

But Roozrokh’s attorney, Gerald Schwartzbach, says that his client is innocent and that all circumstances of the incident will become clear during the hearing.

"I think a great many people, lay and medical, will realize they have been significantly misinformed," said Schwartzbach to reporters, adding, "Dr. Roozrokh is a brilliant young surgeon, who has dedicated his life to saving lives."