Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - The Michigan Daily - 7 Records reveal sordid tale of harvested tissue Masterpiece their f sue Ser Theatre host's medical which papers deeply flawed this ye of a n NEW YORK (AP) - The med- ing the ical records that accompanied the Michae body of "Masterpiece Theatre" chief e host Alistair Cooke were wrong Tissue in just about every possible way. pare th His name was misspelled. His others birthdate was off by 10 years. His to be p Social Security number wasn't The even close. Also wrong were the istration name of his doctor and the time Regene and cause of his death. ensurin There was even a bogus name comply, and phone number for a family The member who supposedly agreed to Regene donate the 95-year-old celebrity's and le body parts for tissue transplants. believe The records, obtained by The were t Associated Press, provide the most thousan in-depth look so far into the case of eration. the famed TV personality, and raise tissue w more questions about the safety of not cleat the cadaver tissue industry: Why sent. didn't the tissue processor that Rege acquired Cooke's body parts catch tissue any of the bogus entries? about I "It's deeply disturbing," said did win Susan Cooke Kittredge, Cooke's Regener daughter. "It throws out any kind compan of faith I had in the system. It's In an so broken. It's horrible to me that tion Ch this wasn't caught." sent to Donated cadaver tissue is used compan in more than a million procedures "quality a year in the United States to in this repair bad backs, fix ailing knees vented and replace heart valves. Most of designe these operations are safe and do But i tremendous good, but tissue that who di has not been treated properly or fraud, is taken from unscreened donors another can infect a patient with hepatitis, receives HIV and other potentially deadly Tissue. infections. LifeC Tissue processor Regeneration and th Technologies Inc. of Alachua, which l Fla., declined to discuss Cooke's the tissu medical records but has said the raising company did nothing wrong. the saf The company says it relies on industr the suppliers of cadaver tissue to Cour "perform a risk assessment on eration every potential donor, interview pieces family members and evaluate the Tissue S donor's medical records." "The' In this case, Regeneration intentio and four other processors put the aut the michigan daily [AMy aMUnj I- Y OCCn AIKL WANED 3W:" wgng nyen Wf ggt & p0nk N , tar Sd, 4 anyon WI Hbs kk. CAs d 1Ans at6610667. EEDWUfiMI Z IC,ATZ. MCidt noWW ft &c ae ina a!b I U et M usl k11ai N ws d P L996-247. SIRIG SRAY ISP Calfsdmn Pms Musk A PuG., 4hDeals Bvma Qiqu Dlscusi an 6. HoMAs Sp~ kDeaddo Call 1800542&'1710&IE5~ wwwaoetaom mmG BEAK WiVI to MoomBbs &FdLhues Ds~s& Flids.Bell Em~s uk Tuud Pusi Call ON drop &aoun L bIwuYa wdom 80064&49..wwd 10 aith in Biomedical Tis- rvices of Fort Lee, N.J., was shut down earlier ar and is at the center ational scandal involv- theft of cadaver tissue. l Mastromarino, former xecutive of Biomedical Services, helped pre- e records for Cooke and whose bodies were sent rocessed. Food and Drug Admin- n says companies like ration are responsible for g their business partners with federal guidelines. records for Cooke show ration received the arms gs. Previously, it was d that only Cooke's legs aken and provided for ds of dollars to Regen- Cooke's pelvis and other mere also removed, but it's ar where those parts were seration says Cooke's was never implanted, but 0,000 pieces from BTS d up in people - landing ration and several other ies in civil court. undated letter Regenera- airman Brian Hutchison Cooke's daughter, the y said it performed many control procedures, and case our procedures pre- distribution as they are d to do." t was a Colorado doctor iscovered the suspected notifying LifeCell Corp., tissue processor that d parts from Biomedical ell sounded the alarm en informed the FDA, ed to a voluntary recall of ue nearly a year ago and serious questions about ety practices within the Y. I documents show Regen- shipped a total of 19,446 of tissue that Biomedical ervices provided. y clearly did not have any n of bothering to verify ments," Kittredge said. "If they had made one phone call to me or this spurious doctor, it would have been caught immediately." Kittredge, who has not sued any of the tissue processors involved in the scandal, says she never consented to have her father's body parts donated - despite that claim in her father's records. The papers were signed by Mastromarino and employee Chris Aldorasi. The documents say that a per- son named "Susan Quint" of the Bronx - identified as Cooke's daughter - consented to giving BTS the body parts. But Kit- tredge is Cooke's only daughter, and she lives in Vermont, where she is a minister. In addition, Cooke died of lung cancer, but the records list his cause of death as "cardiopulmo- nary arrest." He was 95. BTS said he was 85. The FDA sets no age and few health limits on donors, but some tissue banks consider cancer a disqualifying condition. It's not known whether the disease can spread to a recipient. The time the body was recov- ered was also fudged. Cooke died just after midnight March 30, 2004, but BTS lists it as 6:45 a.m. making the 9:30 p.m. recovery time look shorter and the body fresher and more suitable for pro- cessing. Mastromarino's lawyer said his client didn't do anything wrong and pinned the blame on New York Mortuary Service, where Cooke's tissue was recovered. The mortuary service's funeral director, Timothy O'Brien, has already pleaded guilty for his role in the scheme. Aldorasi's lawyer says he can't comment on the records because he hasn't seen them. Mastromarino, Aldorasi and two other BTS employees were charged in an indictment Febru- ary in a Brooklyn court. All four have pleaded not guilty to charg- es of enterprise corruption, body stealing and opening graves, unlawful dissection, forgery and RODRIGO GAYA/Daily LSA sophomores Matt Lerner and Nick Farinella, founders of eatblue.com, an online ordering site for local restaurants, pose at the New York Pizza Depot on South University Avenue yesterday. WEBSITE Continued from page 1 crash course in entrepreneurship. Both Lerner, an English major, and Farinella, who plans to concentrate, in organizational studies, said they would definitely consider continuing Eat Blue as a career if it goes well. "I love walking into restaurants, talking to the owners, giving them our sales pitch," Lerner said. The founders said they are par- ticularly excited about the online ordering function of their site, which was not available on U-Grub, and which they say will eliminate order mix-ups. "(The U-Grub website) had 'No online ordering. No hassle,' as if that was, like, a good thing," Lerner said. "It should be 'Online ordering, no hassle."' Any local restaurant can post a menu on the website for free. Eat Blue's revenues come from ad sales, Lerner said. Although sales are still slow, the students said they expect them to increase as the website gains popu- larity. Theyhopetomakeabout$100,000 in ad sales by the end of the spring. In the first two weeks of opera- tion, Eat Blue has received about 1,200 hits, Farinella said. Advertis- ing online is better for businesses than advertising in a newspaper or magazine, Lerner said, because it targets students who are hun- gry and looking for food at that moment. Tim Wojcik, owner of Mr. Spots on South State Street, said his restaurant has received a large response since online ordering became available last week. Mr. Spots gets about 15 orders a night from the website. The founders each spend about 20 to 25 hours a week building the website, advertising to students and talking to restaurateurs. "Our wholejob is to be in constant contact with our restaurants" Lerner said. "Every restaurant owner has my personal cell phone number." The next goal is expanding Eat Bluetoencompass allofAnnArbor's more than 300 restaurants. "We don't want people to come to the site just to order online" said Lerner. "We want to be the premier restaurant website." Business School senior Denise Wang said she prefers ordering online because the website displays the entire menu and it is easy to choose. Not everyone agrees. Online delivery ordering sites are useful for looking up menus, LSA senior Kari Mar said, but she would still prefer to call in her order by phone. "I think it's easier. I'm used to doing it" Mar said. "You actually get to talk to the person, so if you want you can emphasize things like no mushrooms or something." guage and then decide. This is a much more complicated process, and voters frequently misunder- stand the ballot language, Greb- ner said. "If you conduct a poll on the MCRI, you are measuring something - but it is not what is going to happen on Election Day," he said. Pollsters seeking an accurate measurement must recreate the voting experience as much as possible, he said. "Voters need to be confused and rushed," Grebner said. "You need to let people be as bigoted as they really are." 734.996.2861 TESTGURU.COM POLLS Continued from page 1 Court largely upheld the Uni- versity's affirmative action pro- grams in 2003. "For the past year, opponents of the MCRI have been casting it as a proposal that hurts every- one, especially women," Sarpo- lus said. "But if Ward Connerly can turn it back into a black ver- sus white issue, like he did in Washington and California, it will pass." A reluctance to be candid with a pollster is not the only issue complicating polling on MCRI. Grebner, who has been study- ing ballot proposals for two decades, asserts that it is simply impossible to accurately poll ballot proposals. "Polls on ballot initiatives are routinely off by nearly 30 per- cent," Grebner said. "It is simply not useful to talk about a margin of error because they are so inac- curate." Ballot proposal polls are fundamentally different from candidate polls because ballot proposals don't just ask voters to pick a person, they require a voter to interpret the ballot lan- Rich Klarman's street cred: - Perfect 180 on LSAT - Michigan Law grad (3.85 gpa) - Licensed attorney - 14 years of teaching experience - Hundreds of delighted students YAF Continued from page 1 plans. "I think it's unfortunate that they would treat such a serious issue like immigration in this light" Scott said. "It's very sensational and doesn't lend itself to open dialogue in the way it should." But Boyd said the shock value is necessary. "I think the game may attract a lot of people that just an ordinary speaker may not attract," he said. "I think as many people need to be educated about this as possible." Playing "Catch an Illegal Immi- grant" isn't a new idea. The Young Conservatives of Texas played the game at the Uni- versity of North Texas in Denton last spring. But campus outcry put a stop to similar plans at Penn State University and the University of Texas at Austin. The University chapter of YAF will have help playing the game from its counterpart at Michigan State University. "We're definitely helping out," MSU YAF Chair Kyle Bristow said. Bristow plans to repeat the event at MSU. Like Boyd, he said the controversy generated by playing Catch an Illegal Immigrant will draw much-needed attention to the effects of illegal immigration. "It's a game that the U.S. govern- ment needs to play about 13 million times;' Bristow said. Bristow had another idea, but said it would be unrealistic. "The only thing more effective would be if U of M YAF and MSU YAF were to drive down to the border and start building the wall ourselves:" Bristow said. "But that would be a lot of work." Alicia Benavides, chair of La Voz Latina, a Latino advocacy group, said she disagrees with the notion that the game will create a dialogue. "It doesn't help anything:' she said. "It classifies (illegal immi- grants) as objects, not actual people. It makes them like the other, like outsiders, not like human beings" Benavides said La Voz Latina will probably schedule activities of its own while students play Catch an Illegal Immigrant. "We'll probably do an educa- tional event and try to explain to people why this is hurtful and hold a productive dialogue about immi- gration:' she said. 1 i S t feelI 6yoaware uk ofhe oop~, 9S then READ the daily,' instead'of just doing i MIP Continued from page 1 "We don't care if you party all night unless it interferes with oth- ers' rights to peace and quiet:' said Dresleski. The Ann Arbor police now chart noise violations by address - instead of by person receiving the violation - and the price of the ticket goes up with each offense. Ann Arbor police might not be able to enter your residence immediately, but you may not always be able to keep them out. In general, Ann Arbor police only enter a residence under three condi- tions: they are invited inside, no one who owns the residence is available to speak to police, or police obtain a search warrant. Dresleski said police also would enter a residence if a crime, such as a fistfight, is being committed inside. If a student continually refuses to answer the door or to turn down loud music, police may obtain a search warrant. "I can get a search warrant in about 20 minutes" Dresleski said. "But only when people are being unreasonable." Persanti said the same rules apply in the dorms, but not every- one in uniform has the right to enter your dorm. Housing Security officers, who look much like DPS police officers but do not carry guns, and resident advisers cannot legally enter a dorm room unless invited. Hospital staff will not call the police if an underage student arrives in the emergency room with alcohol poisoning. Police are required to send stu- dents to the emergency room if necessary, DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown said. The AAPD will 4 send students to the hospital if the student has a blood alcohol level of .35 or over or is incapacitated. DPS will send anyone to the hospi- tal who has a blood alcohol level of .2 or is incapacitated, and anyone with a reading of .08 or greater will be taken to a DPS holding cell until sober. Officers must be able to artic- ulate a reason they are stopping students on the street. "Students are stopped for drawing attention to themselves " Brown said. "Police aren't just waiting for some- thing to do. Destroying propertyuri- nating in public, making too much noise, falling down and passing out all draw attention." Dreslinski said the best policy when talking to an officer is to coop- erate. "Generally people talk them- selves into tickets, not out of them,' he said. the crpsord puzzle. i