A San Luis Obispo physician who cared for a 25-year-old disabled and dying man admitted to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center and deemed a potential organ donor didn't feel the patient's organs were suitable for transplant.

Dr. Eric Shultz testified during a preliminary hearing Friday that he didn't believe Ruben Navarro's kidneys and liver should have been procured for a numerous of reasons.

“I didn't think it was wise to harvest Ruben's organs,” Shultz said during direct examination.

Navarro, who suffered from a debilitating neurological disease, was admitted to Sierra Vista on Jan. 29, 2006, after suffering a heart attack at the San Luis Obispo care facility where he lived. He was in coma when admitted and never regained consciousness.

He died at the hospital Feb. 4, 2006, after a failed organ harvest the previous night.

Shultz was Navarro's attending physician for the majority of his stay at Sierra Vista in February 2006, and he also treated the man during a stay at the hospital in 2005.

Shultz testified he didn't feel Navarro's organs were suitable for transplant because of the man's long-standing illness - he suffered from adrenal leukodystrophy since age 9 - and that his “cerebral spinal fluid was bathed in drugs.”

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“I just felt the organs ... would be dicey to harvest,” Shultz said.

During Navarro's 2005 stay at Sierra Vista, a pump was inserted into his body that directly fed morphine into his spine to help ease the pain he suffered from his disease. He was also given morphine on a daily basis at the care facility where he lived.

Shultz was called to testify in the preliminary for San Francisco transplant surgeon Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, who has been charged with three felonies stemming from the failed organ harvest. He has pleaded not guilty to all three charges.

Prosecutors allege Roozrokh ordered huge amounts of the pain-killer morphine and sedative Ativan be given to Navarro to speed up his death so his organs could be procured.

Navarro's medical records show Roozrokh ordered 200 milligrams of morphine and 80 milligrams of Ativan be given to Navarro after he was transferred to the operating room for the procurement.

Both drugs will repress breathing, especially in people such as Navarro, who had decreased respiratory capacity and was hooked up to a ventilator to help him breathe, according to witness testimony.

State law prohibits transplant doctors from directing treatment of potential organ donors until they are declared dead.

Shultz also testified he didn't believe Navarro wouldn't stop breathing within an hour of being removed from the ventilator for the harvest because of the level of injury his brain suffered during his heart attack.

“Ruben's vegetative functions were entirely intact ... and his brain stem was functioning well,” Shultz said, adding he took the patient off the ventilator for a short time and he continued to breathe on his own.

He said when a patient in Navarro's condition exhibits brain stem function and can breathe without a ventilator, “they're not going to die within a short period of time after being taken off the ventilator.”

When asked by defense attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach if there was a possibility the high doses of drugs didn't kill Navarro because he had a tolerance to both, Shultz agreed it could be part of the reason the patient didn't die from the high doses.

He also said the doses were excessive.

Testimony concluded Friday. San Luis Obispo County Superior Court Judge Martin Tangeman is expected to rule on March 19 whether Roozrokh will stand trial for the charges.

If the case goes to a jury trial and Roozrokh, 34, is convicted on the charges, he faces a maximum sentence of eight years in state prison.

April Charlton can be reached at 489-4206, Ext. 5016, or

acharlton@santamariatimes.com.

March 8, 2008