UC Irvine Probes Possible Sale of Body Parts

IRVINE — A new medical school scandal hit UC Irvine as officials revealed Friday that they are investigating whether parts of bodies donated for research were improperly sold and whether cremated remains were returned to the wrong families.

Medical school officials have fired the director of its Willed Body Program, called in the district attorney and set up a toll-free number for family members in an effort to determine whether ashes were properly returned to relatives.

The inquiry began after a routine audit in January found an expense account item in which program director Christopher S. Brown, 27, charged the university for a trip to Phoenix.

There, university officials say, Brown sold six spines to an Arizona research program in exchange for a $5,000 check made out to Health Medical Services, a group UC Irvine officials say they do not recognize.

The university placed Brown, who made about $33,000 a year, on leave Aug. 9. He was notified Tuesday that he will be terminated next week.

On Friday he denied wrongdoing.

“I’ve never done anything that would be deemed unethical or anything that wasn’t done by the university’s procedures,” Brown said. “I’ve done everything the way I was trained or taught to do. . . . They can’t prove anything. They can’t prove I did anything wrong.”

Brown, who grew up in Huntington Beach, is a licensed embalmer who joined UC Irvine’s College of Medicine in 1996. Before becoming head of the Willed Body Program, he worked for three years for Houston-based Service Corporation International, a large funeral company, as an embalming supervisor.

Another in a Series of Scandals

The full extent of problems with the Willed Body Program is not yet known. The revelations follow a series of scandals at the medical center over the past five years, beginning with the theft of eggs from patients at a UC Irvine fertility clinic.

Since then, at least two professors have quit the medical school amid allegations of research impropriety in unrelated incidents. This summer, another researcher resigned after being accused of spreading a radioactive substance on a colleague’s chair.

In the current case, investigators are frustrated by the records kept by Brown, which are incomplete or missing. Officials suspect he had a financial interest in several companies that did business with the program he ran. Investigators found that a virus had destroyed most records on Brown’s office computer, said Dr. Thomas Cesario, dean of the UC Irvine College of Medicine.

Investigators have written to 34 families who have received neither their relatives’ ashes nor notification that they were properly disposed of.

The program, which has operated since the medical school opened in 1967, accepts about 75 donated cadavers annually. Most are cremated and the ashes are scattered in the ocean off Newport Beach at no charge to the family, officials said.

About 10% of donors request that their cremated remains be returned to relatives once research is completed. For that service, the university collects $600, which Cesario said does not cover all the expenses.

He stressed that the university’s review has not found anything to suggest that the bodies were used for anything other than education or research. But it is unclear, he said, whether the ashes of about 225 bodies over three years were properly returned or scattered at sea as requested by donors.

“Our most important job right now is to determine the disposition of those donors who had designated that their remains be returned to their loved ones,” Cesario said. “We have a crucial responsibility to honor their wishes.”

On Friday, UC Irvine officials established a hotline for families of donors: (800) 758-4102.

The university has stopped accepting cadavers while it reorganizes the Willed Body Program under an interim director, associate dean Dr. Peter Lawrence.

Cesario said university officials have asked the Orange County district attorney’s office to investigate any possible criminal activities related to the program.

Tori Richards, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s economic crimes unit, confirmed that the office has been reviewing allegations for the past two weeks.

“We’re looking at possible embezzlement, but we can’t rule out any other type of crime at this point,” she said.

Suit Alleges Failure to Return Ashes

The Willed Body Program has had problems in the past.

Last year, the ashes of about 40 people who had donated their bodies to UC Irvine were found stockpiled in an Anaheim mortuary. Southwest Mortuary Service had been hired by the university program to scatter the ashes into the Pacific Ocean, but investigators determined that some of the bodies had been cremated up to 14 years earlier.

In 1998 an Anaheim Hills family sued UC Irvine, alleging failure to return their father’s ashes after his body was used for research in 1995. The case is pending in Superior Court. “We were in limbo, and to this day we haven’t had that closure,” said son Vincent Craig. “It’s been years since his death.”

Tony Mazzaschi, assistant vice president for biomedical research at the Assn. of American Medical Colleges in Washington, said there have been a number of problems with willed body programs nationally.

“These are difficult programs to run,” he said. “The bodies change hands throughout the medical school, and you need to have a tracking system as to where bodies are and where the body parts are.”

The programs are important to the schools, which typically use the cadavers for many classes over several years. In some case, body parts can be sent to other institutions for research.

“The bodies are a valuable asset, and that is why the issue of trust with potential donors . . . is essential,” Mazzaschi said.

Cesario, dean since 1994, said the scandal has been very stressful. “We are definitely concerned about the reputation of the school,” he said. “It is really demoralizing.”

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Times staff writers Lisa Richardson, Meg James, Kate Folmar and Jennifer Mena contributed to this story.