Woman sues after receiving HIV-tainted kidney during transplant (living donor)

Woman sues Lee Memorial, physicians after receiving HIV-tainted kidney during transplant (living donor)

By LIZ FREEMAN

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

LEE COUNTY — A Coral Springs woman suffering from end-stage kidney disease expected her living kidney donor, a relative, would be her ticket to regaining a normal life after the transplant.

But the checks and balances that one would expect in the health-care system failed Karen Cruz, a former model in Europe, leaving the 55-year-old infected with HIV and two other viruses, according to a lawsuit filed in Hillsborough Circuit Court last week.

The failures to protect against the tainted organ transplant lay somewhere between a Tampa laboratory, which did the initial blood work on the donor, and a bevy of Lee County physicians who treated her and Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center, where the transplant was done in August 2007, according to the plaintiff’s attorneys. The lawsuit says the defendants failed to screen the donor appropriately and failed to order more blood work.

“When she was on dialysis, she was doing fine on dialysis and could have continued on dialysis for sometime while other options were explored,” said Mark Glassman, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys in Weston.

Defendants are the Lee Memorial Health System, which operates Southwest Florida Regional; Dr. Ira Alan Zucker, with 21st Century Oncology, and Drs. John Erik Conrey, Ronald John Delans, and Evan Daniel Gross and their practice, Associates in Nephrology, Butcher, Caanthan & Delans, P.A., in Fort Myers.

Additional defendants are Dr. Gordon David Burtch and his practice, Surgical Specialists of Southwest Florida, P.A.; and Dr. Ralph Condon Hughes III, and his employer, Laboratory Corporation of America in Tampa.

A representative for the nephrology practice declined comment and officials at 21st Century and LabCorp could not be reached for comment.

Lee Memorial spokeswoman Karen Krieger said the hospital system was served the lawsuit Wednesday.

“Despite the allegations in the complaint, the services and medical care provided by the transplant center were appropriate and met the standard of care, and we will defend the case on its merits,” she said.

Cruz, who now lives in Orlando, has HIV antibodies, indicating she is infected, but does not yet have a positive test result, according to Glassman. Her doctors expect that to change; she gets tested every three months, Glassman said. She also was infected with the Epstein Barr virus and Cytomegalovirus, CMV, a member of the herpes virus family, as a result of the transplant.

Cruz was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease in October 2005. She went on dialysis and was put on the University of Miami’s transplant list. A year later, she started being seen by the physicians in Fort Myers and being evaluated by Southwest Florida Regional for a transplant.

In August 2007, Cruz told her doctors she had a possible living donor, a relative. The lawsuit does not identify the donor and Cruz’s lawyers would only say the donor is a relative.

Blood work was ordered and sent to a LabCorp facility in Tampa and a report was issued from the lab on Aug. 24 2007 that the donor’s blood tested positive for HIV antibodies and the other two viruses, according to the lawsuit. The results were sent to Conrey at the nephrology practice who ordered the initial blood work, said Lisa Levine, a plaintiff’s attorney with Glassman.

“We are assuming he saw the results because of the medication she was put on, medication to suppress CMV (Cytomegalovirus) virus the day after surgery,” Levine said. “That led me to believe he had seen the results, he had knowledge the donor had the CMV virus.”

Even before the transplant took place on Aug. 29 2007, the Tampa laboratory and pathologist had a responsibility to inform Cruz about the risk of a transplant because of the donor’s blood test results, Glassman said.

In 2008, Cruz became sick and that’s when she learned it was a result of receiving a CMV-positive kidney, the lawsuit said. A year later, she learned of the donor’s pre-operative blood tests having been positive for all three viruses, according to the lawsuit.

Glassman said the physicians should have ordered more blood work or informed Cruz of the blood test results.

“If they did not feel they could do that, they should have rejected the donor as a non-suitable donor,” he said. “The Lee Memorial Health System and the defendants took a short cut in my mind.”

Today Cruz is lethargic but able to get around, although she does not drive, he said. She is being treated by doctors in Coral Springs.

“She is living with her illness,” he said.

Connect with health-care reporter Liz Freeman at www.naplesnews.com/staff/liz_freeman

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