A San Francisco transplant surgeon who had been accused of hastening the death of a patient so his organs could be harvested was exonerated by the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court.

The case against Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, an Iranian American is believed to be the first of its kind.

Dr. Hootan Roozrokh was found not guilty after two months of trial and two days of deliberation jury. If the court verdict had been against the doctor, he would have faced up to four years in prison.

The doctor's lawyer, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, argued that Dr. Roozrokh, had flown in to retrieve the organs. He was trying to ease a patient's suffering after other doctors failed to perform their duties.

In most cases the donors are brain-dead patients. But due to an increase in demand for organs, such cardiac procedures are adopted, which require speedy retrieval after a patient's heart stops.

Roozrokh, had been accused of prescribing too much medication to Ruben Navarro, 26. This caused the death of the patient at a San Luis Obispo hospital. Navarro had a debilitating neurological disease and was in a coma after a heart attack.

The doctor said that he did not try to hasten Navarro's death. In fact he had ordered painkillers to ensure the patient would not suffer when being withdrawn from life support.