Teen Dies after transplant disaster
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/02/22/transplant.error/index.html"; target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/02/22/transplant.error/index.html</a>;
my question:
Why was she given the second transplant?
To be approved for a transplant dont the chances of survival have to be much higher than not?
And how did she wait for 3 years for organs and then all of a sudden a 2nd set are available within a week.
I'm not trying to be heartless but, from one viewpoint, perfectly good organs were used to try and save someone who most likely was not going to survive and they couldnt have been used on someone else.
Either way, Duke is gonna have some lawsuit against them... god.
my question:
Why was she given the second transplant?
To be approved for a transplant dont the chances of survival have to be much higher than not?
And how did she wait for 3 years for organs and then all of a sudden a 2nd set are available within a week.
I'm not trying to be heartless but, from one viewpoint, perfectly good organs were used to try and save someone who most likely was not going to survive and they couldnt have been used on someone else.
Either way, Duke is gonna have some lawsuit against them... god.
Comments
dukes hands were somewhat tied in the fact that once they screwed up they had to try everything possible to save that poor girl....
yes, huge lawsuit ahead.....g
My sister and father are both doctors and they can't believe this even happened. There are so many checks and protocols you have to go through, it's nearly impossible. Even blood transfusions need to be checked, double-checked against serial numbers before given to patients. To botch an organ transplant like this is unacceptable.
<strong>
Why was she given the second transplant?
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Because the first was a mistake. <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
<strong>and would you want to be the next person in line at Duke to get a transplant???
dukes hands were somewhat tied in the fact that once they screwed up they had to try everything possible to save that poor girl....
yes, huge lawsuit ahead.....g</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yeah, I'm wondering why they didn't know that the brain damage could be fatal sooner -- instead of all of a sudden, yesterday being the day we first heard of brain damage.
The allocation list system used for transplants obviously does not work effectively. I guess if you're a TV star or you get noticed by CNN (even if you're an illegal alien) you get bumped to the top of the list.
[ 02-22-2003: Message edited by: finboy ]</p>
It was not in vain to donate those organs to her because there was hope and hope is what matters most.
[ 02-23-2003: Message edited by: /mandolux/ ]</p>
<strong>and would you want to be the next person in line at Duke to get a transplant???</strong><hr></blockquote>
Oh you can bet they'll get the next one right. Maybe the best place to get one now
[quote]Originally posted by thegelding:
<strong>yes, huge lawsuit ahead.....g</strong><hr></blockquote>
<img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" /> way. Hospitals don't go to court when they were in the wrong. The only way it would go is if the family asked for a very unreasonable amount of money.
I suppose there's a pretty heavy question about what's unreasonable in this case, but I can't see the family doing anything other than figuring up what the hospital is worth, multiplying by 2 and suing for that.
Jeff
[ 02-23-2003: Message edited by: jeffyboy ]</p>
[quote] Doctors believe the brain injury was caused by time she spent on heart-lung machines, Mahoney said.
(Family spokesman) Mahoney maintains that after the unsuccessful transplant, he was forced to battle the hospital's administration because it didn't want unflattering publicity about the error.
He claims the hospital was more concerned about protecting its reputation than trying to find suitable donor organs from a compatible blood group.
The delay damaged Santillan's brain and might have cost her her life, he charged. The administration needed to say it made a mistake "and not let a child lay on life support 10 or 14 days knowing that it's ruining her brain, it's ruining the other organs," he said.
The hospital denies the allegation, saying it did everything possible to correct the error and give Santillan the best possible care. <hr></blockquote>
Don´t you have insurences that covers things like this instead of going to courts?
Insurance companies pay out massive settlements, they then jack up the malpractice rates to doctors, who jack up their rates... we all get screwed in the end.
This is one case where the hospital/doctors should, IMHO, have to pay strictly out of pocket until they can demonstrate that they have fixed the overall system such that such things are infinitesimally likely to happen again.
You know, little things like not having doctors work 48hrs at a stretch (how alert are *you* after that long?), etc, etc.
But no, it's easier to just let insurance pick up the tab than to actually admit that there are some serious flaws in how our medical care is administered. That might be admitting that they're *gasp* ---human---. Couldn't have *that* now, could we?
The goal must be that these errors are avoided in the future. And I believe the best way to do this is to investigate so the reason for the error is clear instead of threatening with huge lawsuits. Lawsuits only makes insurences more expensive and that makes medical costs more expensive too.
And I doubt very much that the doctors making heart-lung transplants are tired before they start operating.
The perfect lawsuit result for this case:
Duke will be forced by the courts to perform indigent transplants for free for the next 50 years, including all expenses such as doctors, nurses, drugs, etc. In the event of another screw up like this, the assets of Duke will be transferred to the ownership of a conglomeration of the nation's organ-donation-management groups and Duke will become a free transplant center forever.
That, and the jackass doctors who killed this girl will be forced to donate their organs a little bit early
I think there should be a cap on ALL lawsuits of $100,000 for "pain and suffering or punitive damages," EXCEPT in the case where a death occurs. Somebody dies, there is no cap.
Of course, actual expenses for economic damage, etc, should NEVER be capped.
[ 02-23-2003: Message edited by: jccbin ]</p>
Doctors are human, but unfortunately I think that the systems we have in place (hospitals, etc) tend to like to bury that fact. "Screw up? Here? Never!" As in this case, where the hospital and doctors apparently knew for several days that the error had occurred, but kept it quiet. It is now considered most likely that she would have lived through the second transplant (which the doctors and hospital were quick to point out was a 'success'... the organs were doing fine... it was just the *brain* they managed to kill off) had that delay not occurred.
So the incredibly stupid error (wrong tissue type) was then compounded by willful maliciousness. That's just wrong.
I don't think Duke should be driven into bankruptcy for this, but I do think they need to show a definite and specific reason why certain personnel should not be facing penalties from civil and/or criminal courts. Every single person who signed off on that first transplant contributed to the death of the girl. Every single person who knew about it and kept it quiet contributed to her death. Both are symptoms of a badly flawed system.
Is it 100% certain that she'd be alive today if the first transplant had been of the correct type? No, but if you believe the doctors' PR following the second one, she should be.
Living just a few miles from Duke and knowing several people who work in the medical center, I've certainly been hearing the internal scuttlebutt. It's not pretty.
What I *don't* agree with is the mentality of "Oh, just let insurance pay for it" when that does nothing to solve the problem or keep it from happening again. We have lawsuit after lawsuit in this country for situations that were avoidable, such as doctor exhaustion, but we still keep the same inane schedules for medical staff because "that's the way its always been". Well for criminy's sake, if it's been shown to be a problem, *change it*. It may cost the hospital a bit more in the short term, but in the long term we all benefit, including both patients and heath care providers. Stupid penny pinching management.
[ 02-23-2003: Message edited by: Kickaha ]</p>
<strong>There may indeed be criminal charges filed here. I understand that certain parts of the failsafe procedure were ignored (one, where the doctors were supposed to verbally talk with the organ-sending organization and confirm that the written data was correct) because the Duke docs were "too busy."
The perfect lawsuit result for this case:
Duke will be forced by the courts to perform indigent transplants for free for the next 50 years, including all expenses such as doctors, nurses, drugs, etc. In the event of another screw up like this, the assets of Duke will be transferred to the ownership of a conglomeration of the nation's organ-donation-management groups and Duke will become a free transplant center forever.
That, and the jackass doctors who killed this girl will be forced to donate their organs a little bit early
This is a bit of an over reaction don't you think. Are you perfect? Why do you expect other to be all the time?
<strong>We have lawsuit after lawsuit in this country for situations that were avoidable, such as doctor exhaustion, but we still keep the same inane schedules for medical staff because "that's the way its always been". Well for criminy's sake, if it's been shown to be a problem, *change it*. It may cost the hospital a bit more in the short term, but in the long term we all benefit, including both patients and heath care providers. Stupid penny pinching management.
The FACT of the matter is this: Duke was negligent in ensuring that the correct organs were being used for the first transplant. Because of their error, Jesica's life was put in grave danger. Although the second surgery was successful, the reprecussions of the aftermath of the botched first surgery (which should have been the only one), led to the brain damage which led to her death.
It is entirely reasonable to think that if the first surgery had used the correct organs, Jesica would be recovering today. This is a TEXTBOOK CASE of why malpractice lawsuits should be filed.
I will agree, many malpractice lawsuits are frivilous. Patients just need to suck it up and live with the fact that doctors aren't perfect, and the laws of nature don't always play out in their favor.
This case is nothing like that. Sue away, family.
And, yes, there is a significant problem here at dook with the way they work their staff. They are way too overworked. Esp. the trainees.... But I don't think that being fatigued had anything to do with this screwup. It's not like the operation itself was botched. He could have done the most perfect heart/lung transplant in the world for all we know, and she still would have been screwed.
I think someone was just plain lazy in making sure all the checks and balances were in place. Tired docs? No. Lazy docs? Yes. At least, IMHO.