When checking the blog stats this morning, I noticed a huge jump in hits yesterday. It took me a bit to figure out why, since it’s been a few days since I’ve posted anything.
It turns out that NBC Dateline broadcast a story on the death of Ruben Navarro and the trial of Dr. Hootan Roozrokh last night. A bunch of folks found this blog using their search engines. (Ruben Navarro died after an aborted attempt at Donation after Cardiac Death – DCD – in a nightmarish scenario that has been described in this blog and elsewhere.)
The story contains some important updates and leaves many important questions just hanging.
First, though, it’s probably most important to share the news that not only was Dr. Roozrokh exonerated by a jury, but Ruben Navarro’s mother now sees him as someone who did the best he could in a bad situation.
From the transcript to “A Matter of Time“:
After the trial, the California medical board, which had also launched an investigation of Dr. Roozrokh, quietly withdrew it. And Rosa withdrew her lawsuit. And this is rare. Her lawyer attached a letter of apology: “We believe you acted ethically and in good faith society will be best served if you are allowed to apply… your talents as a transplant surgeon and continue saving lives. “
That doesn’t mean that what happened with Ruben Navarro was acceptable or that there aren’t important questions left hanging that will now never be answered:
- Rosa Navarro claimed that she was told that Ruben could only be on a ventilator for five days and then would be taken off; Who told her this? Was it hospital policy? No hospital representative in coverage has confirmed or denied this claim.
- What happened to the medical chart containing the minute by minute recording of Ruben Navarro’s vital signs that night? Why was nurse Carla Albright, the transplant coordinator who had a heavy hand in this mess, never called as a witness?
- Was Ruben Navarro really dying? Dr. Roozrokh himself noted how hard his body rallied to continue to live even after ventilator removal and the administration of morphine and ativan. Was Rosa Navarro misled in some way?
It’s frustrating that as I read the transcript over, almost everyone involved in the story seems more concerned with this story’s negative impact on organ donation than the particulars of Ruben Navarro’s death. It would be nice to see some indication that some of the professionals felt a little worse about that. –Stephen Drake