The University of Toledo Medical Center is asking a state court to dismiss a lawsuit filed after a nurse threw away a kidney meant for transplant last year.
Paul Fudacz, Jr., then 20 years old, donated a perfect-match kidney to his then 24-year-old sister Sarah, who was in end-state renal failure last August. But the transplant operation was stopped when a nurse accidentally threw away the donor organ, which was stored in a protective slush, according to legal papers. Doctors tried to resuscitate the organ, but it was rendered unusable.
UTMC was eventually able to arrange another kidney for Sarah, who had to go through dialysis and four surgeries in the months between her failed surgery and the successful one. The hospital's live-donor program was temporarily suspended after a state investigation, but has since been resumed.
The medical center denies it was medically negligent and is also challenging claims by the family to recover damages for pain and suffering.
"They are admitting they threw the kidney away, but they are not admitting substandard medical care," Fudacz family lawyer James E. Arnold told ABCNews.com. "They must think that it is within standard care to throw a kidney away. It would be more decent to admit substandard care, and the family shouldn't have to be going through litigation to prove it." Read the full story here:
Toledo Hospital Threw Out Donor Kidney, Now Denies Negligence
This is an incredible story of medical negligence and the laws that protect and encourage those who are negligent to fight valid claims.
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