Man Selling Potentially Diseased Human Tissue gets Prison

A former body parts harvester from North Carolina was jailed this week for falsifying medical records so he could sell potentially infected human tissue for medical implants.

Philip Joe Guyett, Jr, a 42-year-old from Simi Valley California was sentenced to 96 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to three counts of mail fraud.

Guyett, owner of Donor Referral Services, gathered tissues from deceased individuals at funeral homes in east North Carolina, and sold the tissue to organ banks for eventual transplant procedures. The man circumvented the U.S. FDA requirement that medical information on the deceased tissue-donor be collected by the harvester by altering, omitting and falsifying information on the medical reports which would likely cause purchasers to reject the tissue sample.

Guyett also commonly resubmitted tissue samples which had previously been rejected under new donor names and paired the sample with false blood samples.

"The heinous nature of Mr. Guyett's crimes cannot be overstated," said U.S. Attorney George Holding. "Today's sentence should give others working in public health a clear signal that this type of reckless dishonesty comes with serious consequences."

According to the Associated Press, Guyett received $3,000 to $7,000 for each body he harvested.