 | | 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) | 新西兰奥克兰的绿道医院日前曝出"心脏"丑闻，该医院目前正在向当年失去孩子的家庭归还这些在医院中保留了半个多世纪的心脏。 绿道医院拥有一个自己的心脏库，里面保存了1300多颗儿童心脏，这些心脏大部分来自于因先天性心脏病而夭折的儿童。 继一家英国医院因未经允许保留死者器官被调查后，绿道医院去年对其心脏库也做了一此清查。 由于绿道医院心脏库中的部分心脏也是未经死者家属同意就私自保留下来的，这家新西兰的顶级心脏病研究机构随后成立了一个专门小组来研究该如何处理这些心脏。 绿道医院的心脏"收集"早在1950年就开始了，但是当时人们对未经家属同意就保留死者心脏这种做法还没有引起人们的重视。 绿道医院儿童心脏外科医生柯尔斯滕·菲纽肯解释说，这些儿童的心脏大部分是在做尸体剖检的时候被切除的，如果剖检时间过长，这些心脏的归还则赶不上夭折儿童的的葬礼，如果在孩子被掩埋后再将心脏还给死者家属则太不合适了。 而现在，病理检查通常在病人去世的第二天就进行，剖检的心脏则能按时复原到死者的体内。  | | 绿道医院--新西兰的顶级心脏病研究机构 |
菲纽肯医生承认，如果当年死去的孩子们的父母如果得知自己孩子的心脏被医院私自扣留并用于医学研究，一定会感到很震惊。 她说："我知道我们的确伤害了他们……我能够理解他们的感情。" 她认为这种做法是对家庭隐私的侵犯，现在应该反省自己当初的做法。此外，她表示医院欢迎当年的死者家属和院方联系。 菲纽肯医生强调这些心脏在研究和医学培训方面的价值是无法衡量的。这些心脏都保存在福尔马林液中，大多都已经被解剖了。 新西兰的外科医生们得益于绿道医院心脏库中的心脏，在心脏手术方面取得了很大的进展，并且拯救了成千上万患有心脏疾病的儿童的生命。 绿道医院正在对心脏库中的心脏实施"认领计划"。 菲纽肯医生说，心脏库里的心脏都有清楚的记录，所以即使是50多年前摘除的心脏，也不难确认其所有者。 新西兰国家健康部副发言人保罗·哈奇森说，健康部长安妮特·金会将会就此事展开一项紧急调查，同时确保将此事对死者家属的干扰程度降到最低和保证重要心脏手术的正常进行。 (中国日报网站译) |
Updated: 2002-03-01 01:00
