Romanian authorities are looking into doctors who may have used implants from deceased patients

The five doctors are suspected of reusing hundreds of medical implants removed from deceased patients, according to Romanian prosecutors, who announced on Saturday that a criminal investigation had been launched.

One of the five doctors, who worked at a hospital in Iasi, an eastern Romanian city, has been detained pending the investigation into allegations of abuse of power and accepting bribes, according to prosecutors.

They said the anonymous physician managed a group of four other medical professionals who gave him cardiac implants taken from deceased people without their consent or that of their families.

The doctor allegedly performed 238 procedures over a seven-year period starting in 2017 while using implants that were either taken from dead patients or were of unclear provenance, putting his patients at risk of fatal complications or significant difficulties.

According to the statement, “a significant portion of the implants that the doctor proposed… were not essential and were triggered by false diagnoses or by previously prescribed medication that would induce specific symptoms.”

The healthcare system in Romania, which is among the least developed in the EU, has struggled with corruption, inefficiencies, and politicized management.

Tens of thousands of doctors and nurses have gone, and the state has only built one hospital in the last three decades. It also spends the least on healthcare in the EU.