Peru probes suspected illegal organ transplants

Lima, Agency
Peruvian authorities are investigating 80 doctors, nurses and assistants in connection with 20 allegedly illegal organ transplants performed at private hospitals and clinics, El Comercio newspaper said Monday.

Prosecutor Luz Tecco is heading the investigation of an alleged network made up of health professionals, who apparently got donors in exchange for money and found wealthy patients who were seeking organs for transplant.

So far, 80 medical and paramedical workers have been investigated, including intermediaries suspected of belonging to the network who apparently had donors sign letters in which they guaranteed that they would provide the sought-for organ free of charge and voluntarily, El Comercio reported.

The case of Mexican businessman Oscar Soberon, who received a transplanted kidney in Lima in December 2009 and died the following month back in Mexico, was denounced by investigators in the Peruvian Health Ministry and the doctors who operated on him have all been identified.

The person who donated the kidney that was transplanted into Soberon is a humble baker, who received $10,000 for handing over his kidney and who confessed to having been contacted by another person who had done the same thing in the past, El Comercio reported earlier.

The medical team that operated on Soberon charged him $150,000, but because he was suffering from other illnesses and could not recover from the transplant and finally died.

No one has been arrested in connection with Soberon's operation because additional similar complaints about alleged organ-selling have been added to the initial investigation into the Mexican businessman's case.

The head attorney for the Health Ministry, Fanny Freigeiro, is waiting for a formal accusation to be presented and on Monday - upon being asked to comment by Efe - refused to discuss the case in any detail.

According to figures compiled by the National Donation and Transplant Organization, in Peru there were 296 legal transplants in 2009, of which 122 were corneas and 117 were kidneys.