AP Wire | 02/02/2006 | Fallout from UCI transplant... -
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Published on: 2/2/2006
Last Visited: 2/2/2006
Dr. Marquis Hart, the director of the abdominal transplant program at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center has been removed from his position after evidence surfaced that he lied to regulators to help doctors at a sister university.
The liver transplant program at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center, about 90 miles north of San Diego, shut down in November after a federal probe found that more than 30 people died while awaiting liver transplants there.
Between August 2004 and December 2005, UCI had no full-time liver transplant surgeon and turned down scores of organs for patients on its waiting list.In some cases, no doctor was available to perform transplants.
Hart, who worked part-time at the Irvine hospital, helped mislead a team from the United Network for Organ Sharing, which contracts with the federal government to oversee organ transplantation, according to a printed statement released Wednesday by UC San Diego.
Hart, along with UC Irvine officials, reassured officials with UNOS that he would work full-time at UCI to care for transplant patients.However, he never left San Diego and UNOS did not discover that fact until a year later, when a team visited UC Irvine after a patient complained about the transplant program.
In UC San Diego's statement, medical center Chief Executive Richard J. Liekweg cited a review by the University of California Office of the General Counsel that faulted UCI officials and Hart.
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"I have always wanted to continue my career at UCSD," Hart told the San Diego Union-Tribune on Wednesday.He referred questions to his attorney, Robert Rose.
In a letter last week to the United Network for Organ Sharing, Rose said Hart expected the two universities' transplant programs to be merged and anticipated moving to a location halfway between San Diego and Irvine.
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Hart is the second administrator associated with UC Irvine's liver program to be demoted.