Tissue dealer charged with forging records

RALEIGH, N.C. - When a North Carolina company that collected human body parts for transplants and other medical procedures was closed in 2006, regulators cited inaccurate paperwork and poor record-keeping.

But new court documents illuminate a more malicious story line: Prosecutors contend the company’s owner falsified medical histories, identities and blood samples of harvested cadavers to ensure the risky tissue could be sold.

Court papers accuse Philip Guyett Jr. of forging the age and cause of death of cadavers he gathered from North Carolina funeral homes because tissues can be rejected for a number of reasons to protect the health of transplant recipients. Prosecutors claim Guyett’s business hid instances of disease or drug use, instead they say he submit information from a different cadaver donor.