 | | 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) | 新西蘭奧克蘭的綠道醫院日前曝出"心臟"丑聞，該醫院目前正在向當年失去孩子的家庭歸還這些在醫院中保留了半個多世紀的心臟。 綠道醫院擁有一個自己的心臟庫，里面保存了1300多顆兒童心臟，這些心臟大部分來自于因先天性心臟病而夭折的兒童。 繼一家英國醫院因未經允許保留死者器官被調查后，綠道醫院去年對其心臟庫也做了一此清查。 由于綠道醫院心臟庫中的部分心臟也是未經死者家屬同意就私自保留下來的，這家新西蘭的頂級心臟病研究機構隨后成立了一個專門小組來研究該如何處理這些心臟。 綠道醫院的心臟"收集"早在1950年就開始了，但是當時人們對未經家屬同意就保留死者心臟這種做法還沒有引起人們的重視。 綠道醫院兒童心臟外科醫生柯爾斯滕·菲紐肯解釋說，這些兒童的心臟大部分是在做尸體剖檢的時候被切除的，如果剖檢時間過長，這些心臟的歸還則趕不上夭折兒童的的葬禮，如果在孩子被掩埋后再將心臟還給死者家屬則太不合適了。 而現在，病理檢查通常在病人去世的第二天就進行，剖檢的心臟則能按時復原到死者的體內。  | | 綠道醫院--新西蘭的頂級心臟病研究機構 |
菲紐肯醫生承認，如果當年死去的孩子們的父母如果得知自己孩子的心臟被醫院私自扣留并用于醫學研究，一定會感到很震驚。 她說："我知道我們的確傷害了他們……我能夠理解他們的感情。" 她認為這種做法是對家庭隱私的侵犯，現在應該反省自己當初的做法。此外，她表示醫院歡迎當年的死者家屬和院方聯系。 菲紐肯醫生強調這些心臟在研究和醫學培訓方面的價值是無法衡量的。這些心臟都保存在福爾馬林液中，大多都已經被解剖了。 新西蘭的外科醫生們得益于綠道醫院心臟庫中的心臟，在心臟手術方面取得了很大的進展，并且拯救了成千上萬患有心臟疾病的兒童的生命。 綠道醫院正在對心臟庫中的心臟實施"認領計劃"。 菲紐肯醫生說，心臟庫里的心臟都有清楚的記錄，所以即使是50多年前摘除的心臟，也不難確認其所有者。 新西蘭國家健康部副發言人保羅·哈奇森說，健康部長安妮特·金會將會就此事展開一項緊急調查，同時確保將此事對死者家屬的干擾程度降到最低和保證重要心臟手術的正常進行。 (中國日報網站譯) |
Updated: 2002-03-01 01:00
