A plaque dated November 2001 at the entryway to a seventh-floor surgery office reads, “In grateful recognition of the Goto Research Fund established through the generosity of Mr. Tadamasa Goto.”

UCLA disclosed the amount of the donation Friday in response to a Public Records Act request. Law enforcement sources say Goto, 65, is the leader of the ruthless Goto-gumi gang. He received a transplant at UCLA in July 2001, the Times reported Thursday. He made his donation less than three months later.

UCLA also acknowledged that it received a separate US$100,000 donation in September 2002 from another man who figured in Thursday’s story.

The Times reported that four Japanese gang leaders or associates received liver transplants at the hospital between 2000 and 2004. All four now are barred from returning to the United States because of their gang affiliations, criminal records, or both.

The Times is not naming the second donor because it has not been able to reach him or his lawyer about the law enforcement assertion. Japanese police do not generally make public information about gang affiliations.

UCLA spokeswoman Dale Tate said the university had “no reason to question” the source of the money given by Goto or the other donor. Both donations were deposited into the Department of Surgery’s Discretionary Fund, she said. When asked if the money had any bearing on the men’s transplants, Tate said, “Absolutely not.”

In a written statement, Tate said the surgery discretionary fund was used to support research and education for the liver transplant program.

UCLA’s actions drew attention Friday from a leading U.S. senator and mixed reaction from doctors and transplant professionals.

The surgeries took place at a time of persistent shortages of donor livers. In the year of Goto’s transplant, 186 patients on the list for livers in the greater Los Angeles region died while waiting for the operation.

U.S. transplant rules allow hospitals to provide organs to patients with criminal histories and to a limited number of foreign patients, but both topics have been controversial. News that UCLA had provided livers to foreigners barred from the country generated considerable comment Friday.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who has considerable influence on federal health policy and an interest in transplant oversight going back several years, said he was “worried about the credibility of the transplant system” and would demand additional information from the university.

If the transplant system “doesn’t have credibility, we’re not going to have people donate organs,” said Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees federal hospital funds. “I think I have to get to the bottom of things.”

Others said they worried the surgeries would discourage people from donating organs; others said that there are so few transplants going to either foreigners or criminals that it should have no effect.

All four of the transplants were performed by Dr. Ronald W. Busuttil, executive chairman of UCLA’s surgery department, according to a person familiar with the cases. Goto’s lawyer, Yoshiyuki Maki, previously confirmed that his client received a transplant at UCLA and that Busuttil subsequently examined Goto in Japan. Neither Maki nor Goto could be reached for further comment Friday.

Subscribe to The China Post and save.  Click hereSharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 800 characters max

Receive China Post promos

Respond to this email