A Liaoning Province hospital stole marrow from a woman patient before a bone transplant, media reported.

The 15 millimeters of marrow, said to be for research, involved well-known doctors, who were not punished.

The woman received 500,000 yuan (US$62,000) in compensation.

The patient could no longer sit up after the transplant, said Chinese Business Morning View newspaper, in the provincial capital Shenyang, on Sunday.

The focus is the 30-year-old Fengtian Hospital, one of the city's leading facilities.

The victim, a local woman who now uses an alias, Lin Hong, suffered a serious leg injury in an road accident in 2004, but didn't improve, the report said.

Lin was admitted to the Fengtian Hospital.

By late that year, the hospital performed "dozens" of operations on her but she didn't recover.

Lin's family searched nationwide for top doctors to treat her. They found a doctor known as Li at a Beijing hospital.

Li went to Shenyang on February 25, 2005. He removed a piece of Lin's hipbone and transplanted it to her left calf the following day.

"The operation was successful," the Beijing doctor reportedly said before leaving the same day.

A month after the operation, Lin reportedly learned her marrow had been stolen at the hospital, the report said.

She called Li, who denied it. The family suspected the doctor in charge of her treatment, known as Tian. He denied it.

On July 17, Lin's husband was urged by Cai Linfang, head of a surgery research center of the hospital, to visit the center.

Cai told him the hospital drained some marrow from his wife's hipbone after anesthesia for the February 26 transplant, without his approval. Cai reportedly told him to give Lin lots of tonics.

"Don't worry, the small amount of marrow won't injure her," Cai reportedly said.

After repeated demands to know who extracted the marrow, Lin was told it was Liu Wei, another top surgeon at Fengtian.

The newspaper said Liu and Cai confirmed the alleged theft, adding that hospital officials ordered them to stay silent.

On August 2, Lin demanded the hospital tell her where the marrow had gone, and apologize to her in writing, punish the doctors involved, the newspaper said.

(Shanghai Daily February 28, 2006)