A BLOODLESS COUP AT WADLEY?

UPDATE In our December article “Blood Money.” we reported that the Blood Center at Wad-ley had been the subject of repeated reprimands by the federal Food and Drug Administration for violatNORWOOD HILL ing safety standards for handling and testing blood. Wadley founder DR. JOSEPH HILL and his son, DR. JOSEPH HILL. were widely regarded as the major sources of Wadley’s problems, we found. Now, in the wake of Norwood Hill’s abrupt resignation as chief executive officer in late April, the Dallas institution is groping for a new direction.

The Hill bailout came on the heels of a letter from the Wadley Guild threatening to stop raising money for cancer research at Wadley. RODGER MEIER, a member of Wadley’s board of trustees, says the board is “opening communication” with the Wadley Guild, hoping to reenlist the aid of the group that annually raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for Wadley.

Hill offered his resignation, it was not demanded by the board, says chairman ALAN PERKINS. (Meier says, however, that Hill’s resignation “didn’t get a lot of opposition” from the board members.) Hill, who has resigned all leadership roles with Wad-ley, will take a month’s hiatus, during which the board will decide his status at Wadley.

In D’s original article, critics of Hill charged that his obsession with finding a cure for cancer had blinded him to quality control and personnel problems at the blood bank and the cancer hospital, leading to reprimands by the FDA and a loss of faith in Wadley by the medical community.

The Wadley Guild, in response, voted in May to drop Wadley as its primary focus of fundraising. and to consider changing its name and bylaws. It also voted to release about $300,000 raised last year, but stipulated the money go only to cancer research by two Wadley physicians.

One guild member says they were told by Perkins that they couldn’t see a recent Arthur Andersen management report on Wadley until a “qualified” report had been prepared. “Wadley won’t answer questions or offer any information,” she says. “As far as I’m concerned. I’ve lost interest in it.”