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Unethical Transplant
Posted by Raven on September 28th, 2005
Unethical isn’t the term to use here. There will be some federal investigations into this for sure.
LOS ANGELES — St. Vincent Medical Center, one of the largest organ transplantation centers in California, has suspended its liver program after discovering that its doctors had improperly arranged for a transplant to a Saudi citizen.
The doctors had used an organ that should have gone to a patient whose status had been given a far higher priority at another hospital, regional officials said.
Hospital staff members then falsified documents several times to cover up the alleged maneuver, pretending that the transplant was for a patient who was near the top of the regional waiting list, the hospital’s president and chief executive, Gus Valdespino, confirmed yesterday.
The transplant took place in September 2003 and was paid for by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. Valdespino said the problem was discovered this month. The patient who received the successful transplant was 52d on the list, which covers much of Southern California.
That list takes into account such factors as who is sickest and who has been waiting longest.
A patient at UCLA Medical Center was entitled to receive the organ, and St. Vincent should have declined it, Valdespino said.
Transplant directors and ethicists from across the country say what is alleged to have happened at St. Vincent is a sin in organ transplantation, which is heavily regulated by a procurement network, as well as state and federal officials, to maintain integrity and fairness.
The idea of moving one patient above another for other than medical reasons is ”totally unconscionable,” said Dr. Douglas Hanto, chief of the transplant division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. ”It’s wrong, unequivocally.”
And now so many who were on the waiting list will have to keep on waiting. Some people are going to be in a lot of trouble…I’m sure some already have been held accountable but more will follow.
