The trial of a San Francisco transplant surgeon accused of hastening a patient's death to harvest his organs was scheduled to begin on Monday. Opening statements were set to be made in the case against Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, who faces one count of felony dependent adult abuse after allegedly taking 25-year-old Ruben Navarro off of life support without his mother's permission in 2006. While Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, CA says that it had permission from Rosa Navarro, she denies the claim.
Roozrokh, who was a surgeon with Kaiser Permanente's kidney transplant program (which is now closed), was working with a group that "procures and distributes organs" at the time of Navarro's death, according to the Associated Press.
While the hospital and its parent company settled a $250,000 lawsuit brought by Rosa Navarro last year, Roozrokh faces up to four years in prison if he is convicted.
For more:
- read this AP story