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Texas hospital president resigns after unclaimed bodies are dismembered for experiments

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Sylvia Trent-Adams, who served as president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth for less than three years, suddenly resigned, according to a statement from the university on Monday.

The president of a Texas hospital resigned just months after an investigation found the facility dismembered unclaimed bodies to use for medical research.

Sylvia Trent-Adams, who served as president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth for less than three years, abruptly resigned from her position, according to a statement from the institution on Monday.

The UNT Board of Regents confirmed the dismissal in a statement, describing the change as a mutual agreement between both the university and Trent-Adams, but did not go so far as to provide a reason why.

“The Board of Regents and the UNT System are grateful for the contributions and services of Dr. Trent-Adams to HSC,” the statement said.

“Both as President and previously Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Dr. Served Trent-Adams HSC and its students with dedication, integrity and respect.”

The resignation comes just four months after NBC News released the first part of a year-long investigation into the science center’s practice of dismembering, studying and renting the bodies of unclaimed dead.

The report, released in September 2024, found that the hospital had obtained approximately 2,350 unclaimed bodies from Dallas and Tarrant counties. NBC5 reported.

Many of the bodies were used as a way to train medical personnel. Others were parsed out and rented to outside entities, such as major biotech companies and the U.S. military, to train doctors and students.

Sylvia Trent-Adams, who served as president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth for less than three years, suddenly resigned, according to a statement from the university on Monday.

Trent-Adams' abrupt resignation comes just four months after NBC News published the first part of a year-long investigation into the science center's practice of dismembering, studying and renting the bodies of unclaimed dead

Trent-Adams’ abrupt resignation comes just four months after NBC News published the first part of a year-long investigation into the science center’s practice of dismembering, studying and renting the bodies of unclaimed dead

Shockingly, the investigation also revealed the hospital’s use of ‘water cremation’. Not only did the medical school study unclaimed human remains without permission, but they later allegedly turned the bodies into liquid.

The state ordered the bodies to be removed, but the school saved $1 million over five years by doing it itself instead of paying an outside company.

The Health Science Center announced it would suspend its body donation program just days before the study became public.

In addition, the officials running the program were fired.

Trent-Adams emailed both students and faculty, saying the reporting “revealed a lack of control and oversight” of the center’s Willed Body Program, NBC 5 reported.

She said the program ultimately “failed to meet the standards of respect, care and professionalism that we demand.”

The center’s leadership, Trent-Adams explained, was unaware that the program regularly transported unclaimed bodies across state lines. Some of those bodies reportedly included U.S. military veterans.

In the days following her email, Trent-Adams continued to receive numerous messages from concerned employees, students and alumni about what they had learned through the report.

After the investigation became public, Trent-Adams emailed students and faculty at the university and said the program ultimately

After the investigation became public, Trent-Adams emailed students and faculty at the university and said the program ultimately “failed to meet the standards of respect, care and professionalism we demand.”

One student wrote that they were taught that “consent is paramount in medical practice,” but the NBC reporting “cast doubt on whether the administration was putting this into practice in our academic anatomy lab,” NBC 5 reported.

Another student said, “It makes me sick to think that we dissected bodies without consent. We called them ‘donors’ because that’s what we thought they were, not needy individuals who had no say in the matter.”

The report alleged that the medical school used bodies of those whose relatives often could not be reached, as well as those whose relatives could not afford cremation or burial after death.

Although many of the bodies had no next of kin, NBC News located several families who were angry and heartbroken after hearing the news.

In October, the outlet published another document listing hundreds of names of those who were dissected and studied without permission. The report led to more survivors coming forward.

Reporters were able to successfully identify more than 25 families who learned far too late that their loved one was being used for research.

Abigail Willson, a woman who was looking for answers after learning of her mother’s death from the list of names, went to the center with her family in October to request more information, NBC 5 reported.

An employee told the Willson family that Trent-Adams wanted to meet them but they sat there for 45 minutes with no sign of her, it was alleged. The hospital would eventually have taken their information, but the president never called.

The Health Science Center had been receiving bodies since 2019, which is three years before Trent-Adams took on the role after her career as a U.S. Army Surgeon General ended.

Despite the fallout from the investigation, Trent-Adams noted several of her achievements during her tenure: D Magazine reports this.

Some of these personal victories included opening a nursing school at the university, which received a $150 million grant for Alzheimer’s disease research. It was the largest grant ever awarded to the UNT System.

While working at the U.S. Public Health Service, Trent-Adams set up primary care clinics across the country for people suffering from HIV, dealt with the Flint water crisis and set up a hospital with a mission to fight Ebola while in 2014 was in Liberia.

She has also previously spent time treating and preventing HIV in Africa.

Trent-Adams’ resignation will take effect at the end of this month. Her last day at the center is January 31.

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