A hospital in Ehime Prefecture that has been caught up in a recent scandal over the alleged sale of a kidney to a transplant patient, obtained kidneys from donors with unhealthy organs, according to an in-house probe made public Thursday.

Uwajima Tokushukai Hospital said 11 transplants it preformed since it opened in April 2004 were of kidneys from unhealthy donors. It did not provide details on the nature of the diseases.

A staff doctor at the hospital who participated in three of the 11 transplants said the kidneys were from patients at other hospitals who were suspected of having kidney cancer, tumors or aneurysms. The organs were brought to the Uwajima hospital after it confirmed the diseases were not serious.

The doctor is close to Makoto Mannami, 66, the surgeon in charge of kidney transplants at the hospital who conducted the 11 procedures.