Texas medical school leader resigns after investigation reveals cadavers were used without consent

This article is “Dealing with the Dead” A series investigating the use of unclaimed bodies for medical research.

The president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center is resigning, four months after an NBC News investigation found the center failed to contact families before using their loved ones’ bodies for medical research.

The University of North Texas System Board of Regents said in a statement Monday that it has accepted the resignation of Sylvia Trent-Adams. The three-paragraph statement praised Trent Adams for her “dedication, integrity and respect,” but did not mention the NBC News report or provide a reason for her departure.

Health Sciences Center spokesman Andy North said in an email response to questions that Trent-Adams “has indicated that the reasons for her departure are personal.” Trent Adams did not respond to a message seeking comment.

In September, NBC News released the first part of a year-long investigation into the Fort Worth Health Sciences Center’s practice of cutting, studying and renting out the bodies of unclaimed dead, whose families often cannot be easily contacted or Relatives of their bodies are unable to pay for cremation or burial.

Over five years, the center received about 2,350 unclaimed bodies from Dallas and Tarrant counties and used many of them to train medical students; it performed dissections on some of its other equipment and rented it out to outside groups, including the Large Creatures Technology companies and the U.S. Army, which bring in about $2.5 million in annual revenue to the center. This is done without the consent of the deceased and, in many cases, without the knowledge of any of their survivors.

Just days before the NBC News investigation was published, and after reporters shared detailed findings, the health sciences center announced it was suspending its body donation program, firing the official responsible for the program and hiring a consulting firm to study the program operating conditions.

In an email to students and faculty, Trent-Adams said the report revealed a “lack of adequate control and oversight” of the center’s Willing Body program, which she said “failed to live up to the respect, care and professionalism we demand” “Spiritual standards”. For example, she said, center leadership was unaware that the body program routinely transported unclaimed remains across state lines, including those of U.S. veterans.

Over the next few days, Trent-Adams received multiple messages from concerned students, faculty, staff and alumni, according to emails obtained through a public records request. In one message, a Health Sciences Center medical student wrote that they were taught that “consent is the most important factor in the practice of medicine,” but that the NBC News report “raises questions about whether the government practices this in our practice of medicine.” “. Academic Anatomy Laboratory. “

“The thought of us dissecting cadavers without consent makes me sick,” another student wrote to Trent Adams. “We call them ‘donors’ because we think of them as ‘donors’ and not as poor individuals who have no say in the matter.”

Many of the people whose bodies were used by the Health Sciences Center were described as having no next of kin, but NBC News soon found several angry and heartbroken families who learned from reporters that their relatives had been dissected and dissected without permission. Research. In October, news outlets published the names of hundreds of people whose unclaimed bodies had been taken to the center, prompting more survivors to come forward. In total, reporters found more than 25 families who learned weeks, months or years later that a relative was being used for research.

As more survivors came forward, the Health Sciences Center said in a statement in September that officials were “working to contact the family to express our deepest apologies.”

Abigail Wilson is one of those seeking answers. She learned of her mother’s death and the donation to the Health Sciences Center from a list published by NBC News. When Wilson and her family went to the center in October to get more information, she said a staff member told them Trent Adams wanted to meet with them.

“We sat there for 45 minutes and the president of the university didn’t come,” Wilson said. “Then they gave her our information and she never called again.”

In November, the Texas Board of Funeral Services sent a letter to Trent-Adams ordering the center to immediately stop the practice of liquefying bodies, a practice it said was prohibited by state law and whose effects were continuing. The center defended the legality of the practice, commonly known as water cremation, but said it stopped the practice the same day NBC News released its findings in September.

The Health Sciences Center has been receiving unclaimed bodies since at least 2019, three years before Trent Adams was hired as president after leaving the military. She previously served as acting U.S. Surgeon General during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Her last day at the Health Sciences Center will be Jan. 31.

This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com