Blunders blamed for the death of teenage kidney transplant patientArticle from: Sunday Herald Sun
Melbourne City, Australia
Sue Hewitt
November 18, 2007 12:00am
A SERIES of alleged medical blunders has been blamed for the death of a teenage transplant patient.
Tina Pezzimenti, 13, died after her mother donated her healthy kidney for the transplant.
Angela Pezzimenti lay in a nearby ward recovering from the operation, unaware her child was critically ill.
It is extremely rare for the recipient of a live kidney donation -- especially from a blood relative -- to die.
Tina died a fortnight after the transplant.
Mrs Pezzimenti had nursed Tina at their Croydon Hills home since she was born with a rare congenital condition.
Tina suffered chronic kidney failure and after her 13th birthday a transplant became necessary.
State coroner Audrey Jamieson, in a hearing last week, was told a series of medical mistakes led to Tina's death.
The Pezzimenti family claimed a lack of communication between the surgical teams who performed five operations on Tina and the intensive care unit and other carers contributed to her death.
They said her care was fragmented, with no principal person ensuring she was looked after.
Also, there were questions over whether a blood-thinning agent contributed to internal bleeding.
Mrs Pezzimenti said neither a leading surgeon's apology at the hearing nor assurances by the hospital that its shortcomings had been rectified would ease her pain.
"Nothing will bring back my baby," she said.
Surgeons at the Royal Children's Hospital removed Tina's kidneys on June 26, 2002 and transplanted her mother's healthy kidney. The operation was not successful because the kidney did not produce urine and she was operated on again a few hours later.
Two days later Tina had kidney dialysis to remove a build up of toxins.
On June 30, while having another dialysis treatment, Tina suffered a heart attack, but survived. She had three more operations, including one re-routing an artery from her leg to stop bleeding.
Intensive care staff were allegedly not told to watch the leg, which began to die because of a lack of blood flow.
Tina suffered multiple organ failure and died on July 9.
Barrister Dr Ian Freckleton, on behalf of the family, asked the coroner to make it compulsory for the principal surgeon to have a continuing role in the care of patients after an operation.
The coroner will make a finding in February.
The hospital declined to comment.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22775231-2862,00.html
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