Posted on 03/04/2006 7:17:40 AM PST by ShadowDancer
Hospital Gives Man Liver Early, Gets Punished
POSTED: 10:11 am EST March 3, 2006
LOS ANGELES -- St. Vincent Medical Center received a rebuke from the national organ-donation network for allowing a patient to skip to the top of the waiting list for a new liver in 2003, bypassing others who were sicker.
It was the first time the United Network for Organ Sharing publicly sanctioned a member.
"It sends a message about the overall importance of patient safety and regard for the public health," the network's executive director, Walter Graham, said Thursday.
St. Vincent admitted in September that its doctors had improperly arranged for a Saudi man to receive a liver intended for a higher-priority patient. Federal inspectors also found that the hospital removed the rightful recipient from the waiting list without telling him that it was doing so. The man later died.
The rebuke requires the hospital to alert about 4,000 of its patients about the discipline, but it doesn't prevent it from performing other organ transplants or taking on new patients. Graham said the network stopped short of asking the federal government to suspend St. Vincent's other transplant programs because it didn't think patients were in imminent danger.
St. Vincent issued a statement saying it would challenge the sanction in court. The hospital, which closed its liver transplant program in November, argued the action was unjustified because it is now complying with transplant rules in its heart, kidney and pancreas programs.
Most private insurers have already removed St. Vincent from their lists of preferred providers or stopped referring patients there.
Why do we even let Saudis come over here? We aren't allowed to go to their country at all unless we are hired by a Saudi company.
Yet we just roll out the welcom mat for them. Heck, we even give them our livers and watch our fellow Americans die for want of the same.
$$$$$$$?
CASH
David Crosby. Larry Hagman. Any other celebrities that I missed who trashed their livers with drugs and alcohol, then got a new one ahead of others?
We see this often don't we? We treat others before our own. Not only those who have money but from third world countries to gain support and sympathy while our own cannot afford it. Our government sells out our country and our people. It's a shame.
This story burns me UP!
I would be LIVID if my family-member's liver, heart, etc. ended up in someone other than an American born citizen and particularly someone who needed it the most.
You KNOW it was all about $$$$$!!!!!
The big payoff you KNOW the hospital received should be split between the donor's family and the family of the man bumped off the list, IMO.
That is the ONLY thing the hospital can do to make things right, and even then it won't be enough.
Thank U.N.O.S. they make the list for who gets what I don't trust them because I have seen how the system works it'a 100% BS.
Not the ONLY thing -- they could get their liver back.
Jim Nabors, Micky Mantle.......
you'll like this one!
That should read: "David Crosby. Larry Hagman. Any other celebrities that I missed who trashed their livers with drugs and alcohol, then got a new one ahead of others who trashed their livers with drugs and alcohol".
Don't confuse the issues.
So, you don't believe in Capitalism?
"Don't confuse the issues."
My best friend died two years ago of liver cancer. She never drank a drop of alcohol in her entire life.
was she waiting for a liver?
possible bribery and other issues u raise all rooted to $$....all kinda respect shown to an oil power-what kind do we give to one of those poor, no-name african countries?!
Mickey Mantle didn't qualify because of other medical issues, but he got one that could have been used to save someone's life.
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