Romania has opened a criminal investigation against five doctors suspected of reusing hundreds of medical implants extracted from dead patients.
Romanian prosecutors said that one of the doctors, Dan Tesloianu working at a hospital in Iași northeast Romania was taken into custody pending investigation on charges of abuse of power and bribe-taking.
Dr Tesloianu oversaw a network of four other doctors who provided him with cardiac implants extracted from deceased patients without prior approval from them or their families, the prosecutors said.
The doctor had performed 238 surgeries over seven years from 2017, by illegally using implants from dead patients or of unknown provenance and putting his patients at risk of serious complications or death, the prosecutors alleged.
They added that a many implants recommended by the doctor weren’t necessary and were prompted by fake diagnoses or by specific symptoms deliberately triggered by previously prescribed medication.
Romania’s healthcare system has been plagued by endemic corruption, inefficiencies and politicized management.
Thousands of doctors and nurses have emigrated in recent years and the country spends the least on healthcare in the European Union/
