San Luis Obispo County Superior Court on Thursday acquitted an Iranian-born transplant surgeon accused of hastening the death of a young man so his organ could be harvested.

 

Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, 34, was found not guilty by a jury that deliberated for more than two days. Had he been convicted, he would have faced up to four years in prison.

 

Back in February, prosecutors charged Dr. Roozrokh with attempting to hasten a disabled and brain-damaged man’s death in order to retrieve his organs sooner back in 2006.

 

Ruben Navarro, 25, was already near death by most accounts. He had a debilitating neurological disease and was in a coma after a heart attack.

However, Dr. Roozrokh was blamed of giving inappropriate doses of drugs to the man in an effort to speed up his death in February 2006 and retrieve his organs more quickly.

 

Dr. Roozrokh administered Navarro large doses of morphine, anti-anxiety medicine and a topical antiseptic considered “a harmful substance that may cause death if ingested.” The patient’s death occurred eight hours later from what the coroner ruled was natural causes and his organs were unusable because they had deteriorated.

 

The doctor was charged with abuse of a medically dependent adult, mingling a harmful substance (Betadine) and prescribing a controlled substance (morphine and Ativan) without medical purpose.

 

The doctor’s lawyer, M Gerald Schwartzbach, had said that Dr. Roozrokh had been trying to ease the patient’s suffering after other doctors failed to perform their duties.

 

“Dr. Roozrokh was put in an untenable situation where he could have walked out, but had he walked out, there was no one there to care for Ruben. It was a prosecution that never should have been initiated,” he said.

 

“I felt he could suffer. My concern was to ensure Ruben would not suffer. No one was taking care of him,” the defendant said.

 

The case against Dr. Roozrokh was the first of its kind in the history of the United States. Experts feared that a conviction would turn away potential donors, their families and even doctors.

 

Dr. Roozrokh is still facing a civil case filed against him by Navarro’s mother. He also is facing a complaint filed against him by the state Medical Board in which he is accused of unprofessional conduct during the failed organ removal by being in the operation room, writing a prescription for Navarro without hospital privileges and referring to medications as “candy.” This is a joke he said he regretted.

 

Nobody knows whether Dr. Roozrokh will return to his job but his lawyer said he talked with his client’s employers who indicated they want him to come back.

 

“It's too early to tell what he will do. This has been an enormous ordeal for him. He'll need some personal R&R,” Schwartzbach said.