A physician who served as coordinator for the Japan Organ Transplant Network, the organization responsible for coordinating the nation's organ transplants, may have used his influence to obtain organs for one of his patients, sources close to the case told Kyodo News.

According to the sources, in January, Satoshi Teraoka, a member of the executive board of the Tokyo-based network and a professor at Tokyo Women's Medical University, verified the diagnosis that an organ donor was brain-dead with the JOTN.

He learned his patient might be chosen as one of the recipients of the donor's organs, the sources said Friday, and immediately began preparations to perform the transplant operation at his hospital.