The president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center is resigning, just four months after an NBC News report revealed that the center did not notify families before using their deceased relatives’ bodies for medical study.
On Monday, the University of North Texas System Board of Regents announced that they accepted Sylvia Trent-Adams’ retirement. The three-paragraph statement praised Trent-Adams for her “dedication, integrity, and respect.” However, it did not talk about NBC News’ investigation or explain why she left.
In an email reply to questions, Health Science Center representative Andy North said that Trent-Adams stated her reasons for leaving are personal. Trent-Adams did not reply to a message asking for a response.
In September, NBC News started a yearlong investigation into a Health Science Center in Fort Worth. They looked into how the center dissects, studies, and rents out the bodies of people who have died without anyone to claim them. This often happens when families are hard to reach or can’t afford to pay for cremation or burial.
In five years, the center received around 2,350 unclaimed bodies from Dallas and Tarrant counties. Many of these bodies were used to teach medical students, while others were dissected and rented out to outside organizations, such as big biotech companies and the U.S. Army. This brought in about $2.5 million each year for the center. This was done without the approval of the deceased and often without their families knowing.
A few days before NBC News’ investigation was released, the Health Science Center announced it was stopping its body donation program. They also fired the people in charge and hired a consulting company to review how the program worked.
In emails to students and teachers, Trent-Adams mentioned that the report showed there were not enough controls and oversight in the Willed Body Program. She said it did not meet the standards of respect, care, and professionalism that are expected. She mentioned that the center leaders didn’t know that the program was regularly sending unclaimed bodies, including those of U.S. military members, to other states.
In the days after, Trent-Adams received many notes from worried students, staff, and alumni, as shown in emails received through a public records request. A medical student from the Health Science Center mentioned that they learned that “consent is very important in medicine.” However, they feel that NBC News’ story raised doubts about whether the administration was following this principle in their anatomy lab.
“It makes me sick to my stomach to think that we dissected bodies without consent,” another student wrote to Trent-Adams. “We called them ‘donors’ because we believed that was what they were, not poor people who had no choice.”
Many people whose bodies were used by the Health Science Center were said to have no family. However, NBC News quickly found several families who were upset and heartbroken to learn from reporters that their loved ones had been cut up and studied without their approval. In October, the news outlet released the names of hundreds of people whose unclaimed bodies were sent to the center, leading more survivors to come forward. Reporters have found over 25 families who discovered weeks, months, or even years later that a family member was used for study without their knowledge.
In September, the Health Science Center announced that as more survivors spoke up, officials were trying to reach out to families to express their sincere regrets.
Abigail Willson was one of those looking for answers. She found out about her mother’s death and gift to the Health Science Center from a list shared by NBC News. When Willson and her family went to the center in October to ask for more information, a staff member told them that Trent-Adams wanted to meet with them.
Willson said, “We waited for 45 minutes, but the university president never showed up.” “They took our information to pass on to her, but she never called.”
The fallout continued in November when the Texas Funeral Service Commission sent a letter to Trent-Adams ordering the center to immediately stop the practice of liquefying bodies, which the commission said was prohibited under state law. The center explained that water burning is legal, but they stopped doing it on the day NBC News reported on it in September.
The Health Science Center has been getting unidentified bodies since at least 2019, which is three years before Trent-Adams became president after working in the military. She was the acting U.S. surgeon general during President Donald Trump’s first term.
Her final day at the Health Science Center will be January 31.
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