Docs Accused Of Hurrying Death To Harvest Organs

A 47-year-old man was wrongly declared brain dead by two doctors apparently eager to harvest his organs, reports the LA Times. "They were waiting like vultures, so they could scoop them up," says the patient’s daughter, Melanie Sanchez. A third doctor determined that her father, who had suffered a catastrophic brain hemorrhage, was not dead.

The incident in February in a Fresno hospital comes on the heels of a similar case in which California authorities are investigating whether a transplant surgeon tried to speed the death of a 26-year-old potential donor in San Luis Obispo with high doses of pain medication. The Fresno man died 11 days after the incident; his organs were no longer viable for transplant. (More organ harvesting stories.)