SAN DIEGO -- Body parts stolen from corpses may have ended up in San Diego patients, 10News reported.

It's a scandal that originated in New York City and rocked the medical community. It's now reached all the way to San Diego.

New York authorities say it became a criminal enterprise -- possibly involving patients at Sharp Memorial and UCSD Medical Center.

New York authorities say there was a secret operating room in a Brooklyn funeral home. Bodies were delivered in the back, lifted upstairs, and without permission or medical tests for disease or contamination, bones were removed for sale.

X-rays show plastic pipes were inserted in those bodies. It went on for four years.

"My doctors just told me that this tissue was safe. And I believed them and never imagined that someone would do that. It sounds like a horror movie," transplant recipient Kathleen Oliver said.

The tissue and body parts were shipped nationwide, including to San Diego, where several transplant patients may have been recipients.

"This is horrifying to the tissue industry -- horrifying," said Lifesharing executive director Lisa Stocks.

Lifesharing is San Diego's tissue bank. It accepts about 250 donors a year after rigorous testing and background checks.

"Some of the tests done are hepatitis, AIDS testing on the donor blood and bacterial testing on tissue itself," said Stocks.

But transplant operations can't be limited to local sources. Hence, the East Coast connection.

Sharp Hospital said it ceased operations with Biomedical Tissue Services and promptly informed the few patients affected and ran appropriate tests. No complications or health issues were detected.

UCSD Medical Center said two of its patients had tissue implants. It hasn't learned of any who have fallen ill and expressed confidence they have not been harmed.

Most tissue transplants are heavily researched beforehand to make sure they succeed, and while it's not often life or death, like many organ transplants, they do improve life.

Nicole Possanza tore up her knee while skiing. She had a tendon replaced. It was a tendon from a cadaver with permission from the donor's family. Possanza's not bothered by the concept at all.

"No, not at all. I was very happy that someone could give me that gift and afford me that opportunity," said Possanza.