Organ group sued after 2 recipients die of cancer

[okarol]

Organ group sued after 2 recipients die of cancer

Associated Press
4:42 PM CST, November 11, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS - Transplanted organs from a single donor spread skin cancer to two recipients who then died, claim two medical malpractice complaints against the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization.

Anthony Taylor, 45, of South Bend received the liver and one kidney from the donor in October 2006 and died nine months later. James Fell, 53, of Fort Wayne received the other kidney and died Sept. 30, 2007, or nearly a year after his transplant, The Indianapolis Star reported Tuesday.

The families of the two men, in separate complaints now pending before the Indiana Department of Insurance, allege the organ procurement group did not adequately screen the donated organs.

The organ donor had melanoma, a form of skin cancer, that metastasized in both her liver and her kidneys, said Frederick Hovde, an attorney for Taylor.



Susan Cline, an attorney for the organ group, defended its work.

"Based upon what we can tell from our files, the procurement and screening were done in compliance with all state and federal regulations," Cline said.

Attorney David Farnbauch of Fort Wayne, who represents Fell's daughter, Tracy Stratman, said those involved with choosing Fell's donated kidney ignored signs the donor might have been unsuitable.

"I don't think it would be reasonable to expect in every donor situation that they would be able to screen it and investigate in such a way that you could rule out the possibility that this thing would never happen," Farnbauch said. "But I think there are situations -- and we believe that this is one of them -- where there may have been some telltale signs of melanoma that were not screened and investigated."

Transplant recipients have contracted diseases from donated organs before.

Last year, four patients in Chicago learned that they had received hepatitis and HIV along with their new organs. A North Carolina man sued a procurement organization in 1995 after receiving a diseased kidney from a lung cancer victim. The case was settled out of court.

The United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees organ procurement and transplantation in the U.S., has guidelines to help ensure donor organs are healthy. The guidelines dictate medical tests and examinations that should be performed before an organ is accepted for transplants.

Still, there's no way to ensure that every donor organ is free of disease, experts said.

Donated organs spread disease to recipients in less than 1 percent of transplants, said Dr. Michael Nalesnik, vice chairman of the disease transmission advisory committee of the organ network.

"Life isn't perfect, and sometimes things can get by," Nalesnik said.

Doctors perform about 570 transplants in Indiana each year.

Deciding which organs to accept or reject can be a balancing act, experts say.

"You have patients in desperate need of organs, and sometimes there's no way to be 100 percent safe." said Dr. E. Steve Woodle, chief of transplant surgery at the University of Cincinnati. "And if we were 100 percent safe in everybody, we would be letting a lot of useful organs go by the wayside."

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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-transplantlawsuit,0,7241495.story