Woman who got HIV organ suing

[okarol]

Woman who got HIV organ suing

November 17, 2008
BY KARA SPAK Staff Reporter

A 33-year-old woman who tested positive for HIV and hepatitis c after receiving an infected kidney during an organ transplant at the University of Chicago Medical Center is suing the hospital and a surgeon on the transplant team.

Jane Doe, the plaintiff’s alias, was one of four people who received infected organs from the single male donor at Chicago area hospitals in January 2007, said Thomas Demetrio, the woman’s attorney. All four were diagnosed with HIV and hepatitis c after the transplants, Demetrio said.

“Emotionally she’s pretty devastated, to be honest,” he said. “She’s just coping with the hand that’s been dealt her.”

The suit claims Dr. J. Richard Thistlewaite and others at the hospital’s transplant team were told by Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network that the donor was a homosexual who died in a car collision. The transplant team never told the recipient — whose condition was non-life threatening— the donor was homosexual, which the suit claims is considered “high risk” for organ donation.

A spokesman for the hospital did not have an immediate comment.

Demetrio said the Center for Disease Control’s guidelines state that unless the case is life or death, the recipient must be told the background if the donor is a gay man.

Jane Doe previously rejected two kidneys, one from a heavy drinker who had encounters with prostitutes and another who was out on parole for an unknown offense, he said. Had she known the donor was a homosexual, she would have declined the kidney, Demetrio said.

Jane Doe was one of four people infected in January 2007 with HIV and hepatitis c from the donor, who gave both kidneys, his heart and liver. One has since died, Demetrio said.

Jane Doe’s body rejected the kidney and she is currently on dialysis in addition to receiving treatment for HIV, he said.

The January 2007 Chicago area transplants were the first time since 1994 that HIV was contracted through a donated organ.

Two blood tests on the donor showed no signs of antibodies for HIV or hepatitis c, the Sun-Times reported in November 2007, when the infections were first publicly revealed. Officials said at the time that there were limitations to the standard tests used to screen organs for the antibodies.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1283963,Woman-suing-hospital-chicago-HIV-organ-111708.article

[monrein]

That's scary. 


"Officials said at the time that there were limitations to the standard tests used to screen organs for the antibodies."
 

[jessup]

Bloody unbelievable
I agree monrein - scary shit.

[Chris]

I hope she wins and wins big to cover medical cost and any future things, even funeral cost. Hopefully she will live a long life, but these hospitals need to have something to take them off their high horse and take better care of patients. They need reprocutions of their actions just as a normal person would.

I went to that hospital to find out about their transplant program and wasn't impressed with them. There was no written information, slide shows, just a sales schpeal (sp?) and I was suppose to decide then and there to be listed with them. While all other centers gave information to take home to think it over, have something to look at while they are discussing what they do.