Don't these guys watch PBS??

[W2VW]

Tssssk. Hey buddy. Wanna buy a clean set of bones? Low miles. Hardly used. I will give you a good deal.



Alistair Cooke's bones stolen by transplant gang
By Alec Russell in Washington
(Filed: 23/12/2005)

Relatives of Alistair Cooke, the late broadcaster, have spoken of their revulsion after it was found that his bones were cut from his body by a criminal gang and sold for transplant tissue.

New York police said his body was one of dozens chopped up for profit by rogue morticians in Brooklyn.
    
Alistair Cooke
Alistair Cooke died in March 2004

After presenting BBC radio's Letter from America for more than half a century, Cooke died in March last year of lung cancer, aged 95.

The "body-snatchers", as the New York tabloids call them, surgically carved out his bones the day after he died, said the Daily News.

His remains were then returned to the family for cremation.

Unnamed sources said the bones were sold for more than $7,000 to two tissue processing companies for use in transplant operations.

"I hope those guys burn in hell for what they did," said David Grossberg, a lawyer for the Cooke family.

It is believed that after being processed his bones could have been used for dental implants or for orthopaedic surgery. But by the time of his death the cancer had spread to his bones.

Cooke's stepdaughter, Holly Rumbold, spoke yesterday of her shock both at the desecration and at the idea of the cancerous bones being passed off as healthy tissue.

"He died in the night and the undertakers collected him," Miss Rumbold told Radio 4's The World at One. "His ashes or what we thought were his ashes were returned the next day. They were scattered in Central Park.

"Who knows, maybe some of the ashes were his - how do you know? It defies the imagination. It's so corrupt and evil.

"I'm most shocked by the violation of the medical ethics that my stepfather's ancient and cancerous bones should have been passed off as healthy tissue to innocent patients in their quest for better health."

His daughter, Susan Kittredge, told the Daily News: "That people in need of healing should have received his body parts considering his age and the fact that he was ill when he died, is as appalling to the family as it is that his remains were violated."

The outrage came to light when police looked through the records of a mortuary they are investigating for serial abuse of bodies.

It was raided this week as part of an investigation into funeral directors, surgeons and businessmen who are alleged to have collaborated in stealing parts from bodies.

Officers found that the person who supposedly authorised the donation did not exist, said the New York Post.

America has an active market in human bone with 400,000 grafts a year.

Cadaveric bones and splinters are used to repair accident damage, to ease deformity and to replace bone destroyed or removed because of cancer.

Human bone is ground for cement in orthopaedic operations and as dental filler.

In Britain, which has bone banks around the country, about 10,000 bone transplants are carried out each year.

In January, a laboratory manager was jailed for stealing bones from a freezer at a hospital in Yorkshire and selling them for £12,000 to two private clinics.

[Paul, K2ORC]

Talk about a chop shop.

[Glenn NY4NC]

I have a bone to pick with you!!

Talk about a chop shop.

[W3SLK]

The footbone's connected to the legbone;
The legbone's connected to the thighbone;
The thighbone's connected to the hipbone;
Now hear the word of the Lord!

[K1JJ]

"America has an active market in human bone with 400,000 grafts a year.

Cadaveric bones and splinters are used to repair accident damage, to ease deformity and to replace bone destroyed or removed because of cancer.

Human bone is ground for cement in orthopaedic operations and as dental filler.

In Britain, which has bone banks around the country, about 10,000 bone transplants are carried out each year."


Wow , I didn't know there was such a big market for bones!  I suppose if one of us were cured of a potentially fatal problem using stolen bones from the dead, it might alter our attitudes a little.  Until they come up with artifical body parts for everything, it will continue to be the wild west stone age, I guess.

When I check out, they can have all my body parts for any purpose they want. It would be kinda cool to have my bones, eyes, heart, lungs or SCHLONG do service for another 75 years... :-)

T

[KL7OF]

I've had a bone graft using donor bone in my right ankle.  The donor was from Australia...Now I tend to walk in counterclockwise circles....

[Paul, K2ORC]

I had a bone graft placed in my cervical spine about 10 years ago.  The surgeon told me the graft came from the patella of a cadaver.   I asked him about the possibility of getting diseases from the donated bone and he told me cadaver bone is sterilized in an autoclave.  I wasn't told where the donor came from.  I just hoped whoever it was didn't have a trick knee. 

[W3SLK]

Woke up this morning; put on my slippers; went in the kitchen and died;
And oh what a feeling when my soul went through the ceiling; and on up into Heaven I did rise.

When I got there they did say, "John it happen this ol' way. You slipped upon the floor and hit your head."
And all the angels say, right before you came this way, these were the very last words that you said;

(Chorus)
Please don't bury me, down in that cold cold ground. I'd rather have them cut me up and pass me all around.
Throw my brain in hurricane and the blind can have my eyes. And the deaf can take both of my ears if they don't mind the size.

Give my stomach to Miluakee if they run out of beer! Put my socks in a cedar box, just get 'em out of here.
Venus D'Milo can have my arms, lookout, I got your nose. Sell my heart to the junk man and give my love to Rose.

(Chorus)

Give my feet to the footloose, careless fancy free, give my knees to the needy, don't pull that stuff on me;
Hand me down my walking cane, its a sin to tell a lie. Send my mouth way down south, and kiss my ass good-bye.

(Chorus)


John Prine

[W2PFY]

Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to get a AlistairCooke Bone

The cupboard was bare and ?

[WA1GFZ]

My G.F. broke his back when my Dad was young pre WW2 and they grafted a bone in his back. I think my Dad said it was from a pig.....After all he was a pig headed Italian

[W2VW]

I wonder if this is really a secret ingrediant in Viagra.

[W2JBL]

just goes to show you can buy ANYTHING in the Bronx or Brooklyn.

[Joe-N2YR]

My G.F. broke his back when my Dad was young pre WW2 and they grafted a bone in his back. I think my Dad said it was from a pig.....After all he was a pig headed Italian

Must have been Calabrese

[wb1aij]

"Old Mother Hubbard  went to the cupboard  to get her poor dog a bone,

But when she bent over Rover drove her with a bone of his own.