Video of the Alder Hey Organ Scandal timeline:
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written timeline:
April 1988 – Dick Van Velzen, a Dutch pathologist, is
appointed the chair of fetal and infant pathology at Alder Hey Children’s
Hospital in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
September 1988 – Dick van Velzen assumes his position as chair at
Alder Hey.
1988-1995 - organs are retained and removed without consent,
all across Britain and the Western world.
1992 – The 11-month-old Samantha Rickard dies during
open-heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI). Her heart is retained
by the BRI without the family’s consent.
Dec 1994 – Dick van Velzen is restricted to fetal and perinatal
work and so he decides to take an unauthorized leave from Alder Hey.
Feb 1995 - Dick van Velzen is ordered to stop undertaking
research projects without proper ethical approval
Dec 1995 - Dick van Velzen leaves Alder Hey and starts
working at Izaak Walton Killam Hospital in Nova Scotia, Canada.
1996 – Samantha Rickard’s mother, Helen Rickard,
requests her daughter’s medical records from the Bristol Royal Infirmary. In
doing so, she finds a letter outlining the post mortem performed on Samantha,
and stating that Samantha’s heart had been retained.
1997 - Samantha’s heart is returned to her family.
Helen Rickard works to set up a support group and telephone help line for other
families who also have discovered the retention of their children’s organs.
1998 – van Velzen is dismissed from the Izaak Walton
Killam hospital in Canada for ‘incompetence’.
Feb 1999 – The group set up by Samantha Rickard, now known
as the Bristol Heart Children Action Group, holds a press conference in which
they inform the public about the issue of retained organs
1999 - a public inquiry into paediatric cardiac surgery
at Bristol begins and is chaired by Ian Kennedy.
Sept 1999 – Professor Robert Anderson, president elect of
the British Cardiac association, gave evidence of organ collections at Alder
Hey and informed the Bristol public enquiry that collections of organs also
existed in numerous other hospitals across the country.
Oct 6 1999 – It emerges that many other organs removed by van
Velzen at Alder Hey had also been stored in a laboratory that belonged to the
University of Liverpool.
Dec 1999- In response to this, and as an increasing number
of hospitals around Britain are found to be retaining organs, a nationwide
investigation into the retention of organs is announced. An independent enquiry
is organised, and It this investigation which leads to the Redfern report.
21 December 1999 – Alder Hey releases an internal report in which it
describes the organ retention practices as ‘unacceptable,’ and calls on the
coroner and bereaved parents for help.
15 Jan 2000 - Alder hey defends the decision to take
microscopic organ samples before returning the retained organs to families,
claiming it is justified.
March 16, 2000 – The chairman of the trust running the Alder Hey,
Frank Taylor, hospital admits to the accidental disposal of the organs of a ten
year old boy, Stephan White, who died in 1992. He informed the parents of this
accidental disposal just days before they were due to hold a second funeral for
their son. In response, the Health Secretary demands Frank Taylor’s
resignation.
23 March 2000 –The Chief medical Officer for England, Liam
Donaldson publishes guidelines on how to deal with bereaved parents and
post-mortem operations. A new Chairman, Judith Greensmith is also appointed to
replace Frank Taylor, and promises a new era of openness.
May 12, 2000 - Alder Hey bosses say they have mistakenly
"disposed of" the organs of Simone Robinson who died aged three. Her
parents, who were initially told the hospital did not have their daughter's
organs, say they are appalled. They had requested to remain anonymous but the
hospital released their name without consultation.
August 15, 2000 – A new store of brain tissue is discovered,
including the brain tissue of the children of 62 families who were previously
given the ‘all-clear.’
September 21, 2000 – Roger Franks, one of Alder Hey's two
heart, ceases performing heart operations on the children at Alder Hey. He
states that this is because of the increasing public attacks on his work.
Sep 2000- in Nova Scotia, Canada, were Dick van Velzen had
worked after leaving Alder Hey, a worker found a bag containing children’s body
parts in a lock-up storage unit. The police in Canada issue a warrant for van
Velzen’s arrest, but van Velzen insists he has done nothing wrong
Oct 2000 – The British Medical Association publish
guidelines for doctors, outlining how to obtain consent for the removal of
organs, but the Alder Hey families fight for these guidelines to be implemented
by law.
November 13, 2000 – It is revealed that up to 400 fetuses had been
stored in a laboratory in the University of Liverpool, again without the
consent of the parents.
28 Nov 2000 - Alder Hey sends letters out to parents, which
detail how to carry out ‘Do-It-Yourself burials’ for the returned children’s
body parts.
January 11, 2001 - A summit is hosted in London by Professor
Donaldson. The purpose of the summit is to produce a set of guidelines
safeguarding against another situation like the Alder Hey scandal. At this
summit an estimated number for the amount of organs removed emerges, when it is
revealed that about 3500 children had body parts taken without consent.
26 Jan 2001 - Alder Hey admits to selling thymus glands
that had been removed from living children to a French pharmaceutical company
in exchange for cash.
Jan 30, 2001 -The Redfern inquiry report is published.
This report, led by Michael Redfern, confirms that thousands of organs were
removed from Children at Alder Hey without consent.
1 July 2001 – van Velzen is convicted of improperly storing
children's organs in the Nova Scotia storage unit. He is given a 12 month
probation and ordered to pay $2000 (Canadian) to charity.
Late 2001: General medical council suspend van Velzen
temporarily from medical practice in the United Kingdom.
Early 2003 – the Alder Hey hospital settle the claims of the
families affected for an out-of-court settlement of five million pounds.
Aug 5 2004 – the burials of the nameless body parts that had
not been identified began at allergen cemetry in Liverpool.
Dec 5 2004 – The Crown Prosecution service confirms that
there will be no criminal prosecution of Prof Dick Van Velzen.
Jun 20 2005 – Dick
van Velzen is banned permanently by the General Medical Council from practicing
medicine in the United Kingdom.
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Bibliography and Resources:
T. Marshall Stolen Hearts: Fiction and the 1990's Pathology Scandal (Nottingham: Critical, Cultural and Communications Press, 2009)
http://www.new-ventures.net/PDF/Preview/Stolen%20Hearts%20preview.pdf
"Timeline - how the Alder Hey Scandal broke,' The Liverpool echo, April 20, 2007
"Alder Hey organ Scandal - The story so far," The Dailymail, February 1, 2001
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-18975/Alder-Hey-organs-scandal--story-far.html
"New organ scandal forces hospital chief to quit," the guardian, March 18, 2000
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/mar/17/alderhey.davidward
S. Bosely "50,000 organs secretly stored in hospitals," the guardian, January 12, 2001
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2001/jan/11/hospitals.health
"Living Children's glands given to drug firms" the guardian, January 27, 2001
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2001/jan/26/alderhey.uknews
S. Bosely "Organ horror report outcry," the guardian, January 31, 2001
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2001/jan/30/health.alderhey
"Doctor: Organ Scandal not my fault," the guardian, February 5, 2001
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2001/feb/05/health.alderhey1
J. Meikle "GMC bans Alder Hey pathologist" the guardian, February 4, 2001
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/feb/03/alderhey.jamesmeikle
D. Batty "Alder Hey pathologist struck off" the guardian, June 21, 2005
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/jun/20/health.lifeandhealth
"Organ Scandal Background," BBC news, January 21, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1136723.stm
"Alder Hey Hospital to stage final memorial for organ-scandal children,' The Telegraph, January 18, 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7012610/Alder-Hey-Hospital-to-stage-final-memorial-for-organ-scandal-children.html
R. Jenkins, “Alder Hey doctor shuns accusers at inquiry into organ theft,” The Times UK News, June 7, 2005.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=170706
