A transplant surgeon accused of hastening the death of a man so his organs could be harvested has been ordered to trial on one count of felony dependent adult abuse, but two other felony charges involving administration of drugs to the dying man were dismissed.

The criminal case against Dr. Hootan Roozrokh of San Francisco is the first such action against a transplant doctor in the United States.

After a preliminary hearing in San Luis Obispo County, Superior Court Judge Martin J. Tangeman issued a ruling Wednesday describing an uncoordinated scene surrounding the 2006 death of Ruben Navarro at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, which had never handled a “Donation After Cardiac Death (DCD)” case.

Navarro, 26, had a debilitating neurological disease and was in a coma when he was admitted to the hospital after a heart attack.

His mother had authorized harvesting of his organs but because he was not brain dead, the judge said, it was determined that the transplant procedure to be used would be DCD, which requires withdrawal of life support leading to death prior to recovery of organs

“Dr. Roozrokh did not make or participate in making any of these decisions,” said the ruling, which added that Roozrokh was sent by employer Kaiser Permananente in coordination with the California Transplant Donor Network to perform the transplant surgery after those decisions were made.

But the judge said doctors and nurses present when Navarro died gave conflicting accounts and “the inconsistencies in testimony between the various witnesses cannot be resolved by reference to written records.”

His ruling cited the lack of experience in the procedure by everyone involved including Roozrokh, who was less than a year out of his organ transplant fellowship and had observed only one such procedure in training.

Roozrokh is the only person charged criminally in the case. His attorney, M. Gerald…