 | | Dr Kirsten Finucane says she can understand parents being upset. |
Green Lane Hospital is offering hearts taken from babies and children back to families unaware that they have been stored for up to 50 years.The hospital has what it calls a heart library, which stores over 1300 hearts, mainly from children with congenital heart disease. Green Lane reviewed its heart library last year after an inquiry in Britain into a hospital which retained thousands of body parts without consent. Green Lane, New Zealand's top heart facility, then set up a group to decide what to do about the hearts, some of which had been collected without consent. The collection began in 1950, when consent to retain hearts was not an issue.
The hospital's paediatric cardiac surgeon, Dr Kirsten Finucane said that was partly because most of the hearts were removed for autopsy, and delays meant the child might have already been buried so it was not appropriate to return the heart to the family. These days, pathologist's examinations would be done the day after death, and the heart returned to the body. Dr Finucane accepted that some parents would be shocked to discover their children's hearts might have been kept and used for research. "I realise we have offended some ... I can understand their upset." She stressed that the heart collection was invaluable for research and training. The hearts were stored in formalin, and in many cases had been dissected. The library was credited with enabling New Zealand surgeons to make major advances in heart surgery and had saved the lives of many children with heart disease. The hospital was also working on a communication plan to inform families of the heart library. Dr Finucane said the hearts were well documented and it would not be difficult to confirm whose hearts had been kept right back to 1950. National's associate health spokesman Dr Paul Hutchison said Health Minister Annette King should carry out an urgent inquiry, but she should ensure minimal disruption to relatives and surgeons carrying out vital cardiac surgery. (Agencies) | 新西蘭奧克蘭的綠道醫(yī)院日前曝出"心臟"丑聞，該醫(yī)院目前正在向當(dāng)年失去孩子的家庭歸還這些在醫(yī)院中保留了半個(gè)多世紀(jì)的心臟。 綠道醫(yī)院擁有一個(gè)自己的心臟庫(kù)，里面保存了1300多顆兒童心臟，這些心臟大部分來(lái)自于因先天性心臟病而夭折的兒童。 繼一家英國(guó)醫(yī)院因未經(jīng)允許保留死者器官被調(diào)查后，綠道醫(yī)院去年對(duì)其心臟庫(kù)也做了一此清查。 由于綠道醫(yī)院心臟庫(kù)中的部分心臟也是未經(jīng)死者家屬同意就私自保留下來(lái)的，這家新西蘭的頂級(jí)心臟病研究機(jī)構(gòu)隨后成立了一個(gè)專門小組來(lái)研究該如何處理這些心臟。 綠道醫(yī)院的心臟"收集"早在1950年就開(kāi)始了，但是當(dāng)時(shí)人們對(duì)未經(jīng)家屬同意就保留死者心臟這種做法還沒(méi)有引起人們的重視。 綠道醫(yī)院兒童心臟外科醫(yī)生柯?tīng)査闺し萍~肯解釋說(shuō)，這些兒童的心臟大部分是在做尸體剖檢的時(shí)候被切除的，如果剖檢時(shí)間過(guò)長(zhǎng)，這些心臟的歸還則趕不上夭折兒童的的葬禮，如果在孩子被掩埋后再將心臟還給死者家屬則太不合適了。 而現(xiàn)在，病理檢查通常在病人去世的第二天就進(jìn)行，剖檢的心臟則能按時(shí)復(fù)原到死者的體內(nèi)。  | | 綠道醫(yī)院--新西蘭的頂級(jí)心臟病研究機(jī)構(gòu) |
菲紐肯醫(yī)生承認(rèn)，如果當(dāng)年死去的孩子們的父母如果得知自己孩子的心臟被醫(yī)院私自扣留并用于醫(yī)學(xué)研究，一定會(huì)感到很震驚。 她說(shuō)："我知道我們的確傷害了他們……我能夠理解他們的感情。" 她認(rèn)為這種做法是對(duì)家庭隱私的侵犯，現(xiàn)在應(yīng)該反省自己當(dāng)初的做法。此外，她表示醫(yī)院歡迎當(dāng)年的死者家屬和院方聯(lián)系。 菲紐肯醫(yī)生強(qiáng)調(diào)這些心臟在研究和醫(yī)學(xué)培訓(xùn)方面的價(jià)值是無(wú)法衡量的。這些心臟都保存在福爾馬林液中，大多都已經(jīng)被解剖了。 新西蘭的外科醫(yī)生們得益于綠道醫(yī)院心臟庫(kù)中的心臟，在心臟手術(shù)方面取得了很大的進(jìn)展，并且拯救了成千上萬(wàn)患有心臟疾病的兒童的生命。 綠道醫(yī)院正在對(duì)心臟庫(kù)中的心臟實(shí)施"認(rèn)領(lǐng)計(jì)劃"。 菲紐肯醫(yī)生說(shuō)，心臟庫(kù)里的心臟都有清楚的記錄，所以即使是50多年前摘除的心臟，也不難確認(rèn)其所有者。 新西蘭國(guó)家健康部副發(fā)言人保羅·哈奇森說(shuō)，健康部長(zhǎng)安妮特·金會(huì)將會(huì)就此事展開(kāi)一項(xiàng)緊急調(diào)查，同時(shí)確保將此事對(duì)死者家屬的干擾程度降到最低和保證重要心臟手術(shù)的正常進(jìn)行。 (中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)站譯) |
Updated: 2002-03-01 01:00
