KIDNEY-DONOR WIFE DIES

[okarol]

KIDNEY-DONOR WIFE DIES

By ED ROBINSON and TOM LIDDY

November 24, 2008

A woman who donated a kidney to her husband died on an operating table at a Brooklyn hospital, which has shut down its transplant unit until further notice, The Post has learned.

The donor died at SUNY Downstate Hospital around Nov. 15, according to Claudia Hutton, a spokeswoman for the state Health Department.

The transplant was carried out, but the condition of the recipient was not immediately known, Hutton said.

The donor was a woman who gave the kidney to her spouse, sources said.

A spokesman for the hospital did not immediately return calls.

Downstate "agreed on Friday that they would stop doing transplants" while the Health Department investigated," Hutton said, adding that the move was voluntary.

It's rare for live organ donors to die, experts say.

One notable exception was former Post reporter Michael Hurewitz, who died in 2002 at Mount Sinai Hospital after donating part of his liver to his brother.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11242008/news/regionalnews/kidney_donor_wife_dies_140483.htm

[Run8]

Now that is what you call a "Gift of Life".

[twirl]

I hope donors do not find out about this and change their minds

[paul.karen]

Oh i would not be able to cope with this at all.
The quilt would kill me so i could be with my wife.....

[okarol]

I posted this story because it happened recently and is important - but it is the first time I have ever heard of a kidney donor passing away during surgery, a very rare event.

[monrein]

Really reminds us that ALL surgeries carry a degree of risk.

[Sluff]

That would be a tough one. I hope he is doing well with her kidney so that her sacrifice didn't go without reason. We all know the risk and I'm sure no one could really think this would happen.

[monrein]

The first transplant recipient that I knew personally ,prior to her transplant, (my husband and I were assigned to her and her husband as peer support while she was training for home hemo) died within hours of receiving her new kidney.  It was a fluke problem to do with BP that skyrocketed.  I waited two years after that before going on the transplant list, I was so spooked.  However, it was the failed transplant recipients, the ones whose transplants never worked at all that made me the most nervous of the whole thing.  In clinic if I asked about transplant the horror stories were enough to put me off.  I waited four years before getting listed.

[Zach]

Really reminds us that ALL surgeries carry a degree of risk.

Exactly.

[jbeany]

The last stats I saw said the risk of death for a live donor is about 1 out of every 3000.   It was certainly high enough to make me a lot less enthused about accepting a live donor.  I'm okay with risking my life with a cadaver kidney.  I was never good with the idea of purposely risking the lives of one of my family or friends, even if it meant giving up a chance to have a life without dialysis.

[okarol]

I think those stats include all living donors, not just kidney donors, which have a much better track record.

This news story is mentioned on a living donor site and one admin says: "The central fact of this article, that a living donor has died, is true. Most other details are incorrect. The Membership and Professional Standards Committee of UNOS and many regulatory agencies are investigating and maintain confidentiality while doing so. I look forward to the time when I know and can share more details."

[petey]

As a living donor (to my husband Marvin, left kidney, July of 2000, lasted for him for a little over three years), I will address this issue.  Before our transplant surgery, I had never been a patient in a hospital (except for my birth some 37 years before), never had surgery, never had an IV.  I was fully informed (and then informed some more by everyone on my "team" and then by everyone on Marvin's "team" and then by them all again) of the risk I was taking, but I didn't really pay it any attention.  They told me what I was risking (low, low risk -- the numbers jbeany quoted seem right, 1 out of 3000 deaths, infection possible, complications, etc.), and I heard them.  However, it didn't deter me one iota.  It didn't even make me stop and think twice about donating.  Why not?  I'm an intelligent, well-educated, realistic, logical woman, so why didn't I say, "Hey, wait a minute...what was that you said about my possible death?"  Quite simply -- the reason I didn't think twice was my reason for wanting to donate to Marvin in the first place: I thought I would be making a difference in his life.  It was worth the risk, and, to me, it didn't really matter what that risk was.

If they had said the odds of my death were greater than that 1/3000, it wouldn't have made any difference.  It would have been worth the risk.  If they had said...anything at all, it would have been worth the risk.  Of course, I was checked out thoroughly (you cannot imagine how many tests a living donor has to go through) and then re-checked, and then re-checked again.  This, I believe, was the doctors' way of assuring themselves that my risks were as minimal as possible (don't they take an "...above all, do no harm..." oath?).  There was, however, never any question in my mind (or my heart or my soul) that this was the right thing for me to do.  As illogical, ignorant, or flippant as it may sound, I would have been willing to take any risk.

For the most part, living donors are a different breed of people.  I believe we are highly motivated, focused, passionate people.  My motivation for being a living donor was my strong, strong love for Marvin and my extreme desire to do something to make his life better.  If I had to choose which of us would live, I would choose Marvin ... and not give it a second thought.

[Chris]

I like  how the hospital uses the old standby of "voluntarily" suspending. That is probably done before they are told since they know they are being investigated.

Sad to hear about the mans wife dying while on the table. What a horrifying way to wake up surgery too.

[jacob]

It seems this program has a poor record in terms of patient survival too:

Post-transplant Outcomes ( 01/01/2005-06/30/2007) 1 Year Tables for More Information
    Observed Expected Statistical Significance of Difference     
 Adult graft survival (based on 234  transplants) (%) 86.40 87.80 Not Significantly Different (a)  10
 Adult patient survival (based on 199  transplants) (%) 89.98 93.66 Statistically Lower (b)  11
  Pediatric graft survival (based on 12  transplants) (%) 83.33 93.55 Not Significantly Different (a)   10
 Pediatric patient survival (based on 10  transplants) (%) 100.00 NA NA  11

http://www.ustransplant.org/csr/current/publicData.aspx?facilityID=NYDSTX1KI&t=00&r=new%20york