Harvard Medical Faculty to pay $53M in morgue scandal settlements – NBC Boston

Harvard Medical Faculty has reached settlements with households whose family members’ stays had been offered on the black market.

The varsity mentioned this week on its web site that it had agreed to pay $53 million in two class motion settlement funds, pending courtroom approval.

The lawsuits had been introduced over a scandal that got here to mild three years in the past. Investigators mentioned physique elements had been stolen from the medical college’s morgue between 2018 and 2023.

Cedric Lodge, the morgue’s supervisor, pleaded responsible final yr to interstate transport of stolen human stays. He was sentenced to eight years in jail.

Households affected by the theft of human stays from Harvard Medical Faculty’s morgue had their lawsuit towards the college dismissed.

Lodge had been accused of letting individuals come into the morgue to pick physique elements on the market, then steal them and take them to his house in Goffstown, New Hampshire, for transport. His spouse, Denise Lodge, was additionally sentenced to greater than a yr in jail for aiding him.

Households of the victims filed civil lawsuits in a bid to carry the college accountable. A decide dismissed the circumstances in February of 2024, figuring out Harvard was immune from legal responsibility as a result of it acted in good religion and was not liable for worker misconduct. However in October of 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket reversed a part of that call and let the lawsuits proceed.

“We’re grateful to be working along with the plaintiffs to maneuver ahead in a method that prioritizes assist for households and the AGP and avoids extended litigation,” Harvard Medical Faculty Dean for Medical Schooling Bernard S. Chang and Harvard College Dean of the School of Medication George Q. Daley wrote in a letter to the college neighborhood posted Monday. “Whereas Lodge’s sentencing concludes the felony case towards him, and the category motion settlement settlement when fulfilled would conclude the civil circumstances, the method of recovering from this painful incident continues.”

Lodge offered physique elements, together with brains, pores and skin, arms and faces, taken from individuals whose stays had been donated through Harvard’s Anatomical Reward Program.

After the physique part-selling scheme was revealed, the college introduced in outdoors consultants to evaluate the Anatomical Reward Program, then applied adjustments they beneficial.

Learn the complete Harvard Medical Faculty letter:

• Expensive Members of the HMS and HSDM Communities:
  
  Three years in the past, we had been shocked by the indictment and arrest of Cedric Lodge, a former workers member in our morgue, who was charged with the illegal interstate transport of stolen human stays from 2018 via August 2022. His violations — which, because the federal indictment towards him states, had been “with out the information or permission of HMS” — had been despicable, abhorrent, and a flagrant betrayal of our values as a medical neighborhood. In December 2025, after pleading responsible to his crimes, he was sentenced to 96 months in jail. Six different co-conspirators who purchased stays from Lodge however had no connection to Harvard had been additionally indicted, pleaded responsible, and have been sentenced.

  These occasions don’t replicate the reverence we maintain for the altruistic people who selflessly donate their our bodies to our Anatomical Reward Program (AGP) to supply important academic alternatives to medical and dental college students, training surgeons, and allied well being professionals. We reaffirm our deep sorrow and empathy for the households of donors who could have been impacted.

  Starting in the summertime of 2023, a lot of civil lawsuits had been introduced towards Harvard associated to Lodge’s conduct. As we speak, Harvard and the plaintiffs in these circumstances requested the courtroom to approve a category motion settlement settlement to resolve the claims towards the College. At a courtroom convention tomorrow afternoon, counsel for each the plaintiffs and Harvard will request the courtroom’s preliminary approval of the settlement settlement. If the courtroom grants preliminary approval, two class motion settlement funds totaling $53 million might be established to resolve the lawsuits. A 3rd-party Settlement Administrator might be appointed to, amongst different issues, notify potential class members — together with by creating a web site with info on eligibility and directions for submitting a declare — and to distribute settlement funds. This course of, from starting to finish, is anticipated to take a number of months. We are going to replace the FAQs on our web site when additional details about the courtroom’s actions and when particulars from and speak to info for the Settlement Administrator can be found.

  Along with financial provisions, the settlement settlement contains HMS’ pledge to supply an announcement to the claimant households through dwell webinar confirming that Lodge’s felony acts had been morally reprehensible and inconsistent with the requirements that Harvard College and HMS count on for the therapy of anatomical donors and their family members, in addition to an announcement summarizing enhancements made to the AGP. Moreover, starting within the 2027-2028 educational yr, HMS will set up an annual monetary assist scholarship for medical college students in appreciation and in honor of all of our anatomical donors.

  The AGP has additionally enacted the suggestions of a panel of three outdoors consultants appointed by the Harvard College Workplace of the President and Provost in 2023 to guage the AGP and associated insurance policies and practices. The panel launched its report in December 2023, which supplied constructive suggestions and suggestions to make sure that this system adheres to the very best requirements and finest practices. The suggestions had been categorized into six areas — governance, insurance policies, communications, specimens, collections, and amenities — every of which was assigned to a senior school member or administrator liable for overseeing the progress in that area, leading to essential and sustained progress over the previous two years.

  We’re grateful to be working along with the plaintiffs to maneuver ahead in a method that prioritizes assist for households and the AGP and avoids extended litigation. Whereas Lodge’s sentencing concludes the felony case towards him, and the category motion settlement settlement when fulfilled would conclude the civil circumstances, the method of recovering from this painful incident continues.

  The detailed examine of human anatomy via the dissection of the our bodies of deceased people is a useful and indispensable a part of medical and dental college students’ training and within the ongoing coaching of surgical residents and different well being care professionals. Our college students are deeply respectful of and grateful to the donors and their households, and every year on the conclusion of their research they maintain a personal memorial service to honor the donors.

  In a letter to relations and subsequent of kin in July 2023 following information of the Cedric Lodge’s actions, our college students wrote the next: “Newly minted medical college students enter school rooms every August for a yr of largely lecture-based instructing. Time spent with donors is a uncommon alternative to step out of the classroom and be taught from our very first sufferers. It’s on this sacred house that many college students are formed into nascent physicians, understanding the load of the belief others put into the career we’re embarking on.”

  Whereas we can’t rewrite the previous occasions that introduced us right here, our college students give us profound hope sooner or later. The following era of physicians we’re coaching will carry ahead an everlasting legacy of service and selflessness and can unfold that generosity to each life they contact.

• Sincerely,
  George Q. Daley
  Dean of the School of Medication
  Harvard College

  Bernard S. Chang
  Dean for Medical Schooling

  
  Harvard Medical Faculty