In the 1980s, thanks to the discovery of immunosuppressant drugs, organ transplants finally became a viable tool, helping thousands of Americans live longer, happier lives.
New Orleans quickly became a hub for organ transplants, not only were the city’s hospitals some of the finest in the country, but they cooperated and coordinated to create a network that could match patients to donors and perform the needed surgeries.
However, there was a problem. The organs were going to those in the greatest need and, to many of New Orleans’ elite, that was not acceptable. There were many who were wealthy, elderly and frail hoping to eke out a few more years of life with a new liver or a new heart.
Those wealthy few found a savior in Dr. Rotti Sartori, a physician at Algiers General Hospital. Rotti was a skilled surgeon but, due to some ethical missteps, was spending more time delivering babies than operating on patients.
For those seeking ill-gotten organs, Rotti was the perfect physician. He had few scruples, was skilled with a scalpel and even had an operating room in his home.
However, there was a problem: Finding the organs. Putting incompatible organs into a patient is a great way to kill them, and it’s difficult to know who is compatible without extensive testing.
It was there that Rotti came across an idea. He used the New Orleans transplant network, which had all the details he needed, to find recent transplant recipients that were compatible with his wealthy patients.
From there the process was simple, lure the unsuspecting recipient to Algiers, usually with an offer of free drinks or free food, and then extract the organ from them by force. Though Rotti worked hard to give his victims the best chance for survival, none did. The trauma of having vital organs (re)removed was simply too much. They each died a slow, painful death as their bodies eventually gave out.
Rotti repeated this practice over and over again, grabbing victims, extracting their organs and putting them into the bodies of wealthy benefactors. Rotti quickly amassed a sizable fortune this way, but he also earned the suspicion of the police.
As hospitals reported their transplant patients disappearing, suspicion began to mount. The police began to investigate and eventually traced Rotti’s invitations back to him. He attempted to flee New Orleans but was eventually caught and died in prison, ironically, while waiting on a transplant list for a new kidney.
However, the good doctor is back. For three nights only, October 28, 29 and 31 2022 he’s returned and he has a few patients that were left unserved. So come pay him a visit, just pray that you aren’t the blood type that he needs…