Quote:
Originally posted by X-FILEZ-ZPHIB
I am glad her surgeon took the blame but he won't apologize for his mistake.
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Just a small side note here on the process of donating organs and matching donor to recipient. (In one of my previous positions I was a data specialist in the Bone Marrow Transplant department and played a part in monitoring these patients and their grafts--much more complicated than "solid" organs.)
UNOS is set up much like the NMDP (National Marrow Donor Program) when it comes to recording tissue types of donors to recipients. Bottom line, the surgeon doesn't do it. He/She has nothing to do with the matching and confirmation process. There are at least a dozen people between the matching organization (in this case, UNOS) and the hospital where the recipient is being treated. The surgeon relies on those people to get blood types, HLA antigens straight before he implants the graft. At my institution we have no less than 5 people involved in prepping stem cell grafts plus data/research personnel confirming the match before the cells ever get to the patient.
The surgeon who implanted these organs had no way of knowing they were the wrong type. It's not his job. So he's not the one who should be apologizing for this botched job. There should be at least a dozen heads soon to roll both at UNOS and the hospital. I know at MDACC, no one is "just" fired for a mistake of this magnitude. (I'm also not aware of it happening even once after several thousand grafts, either.)
If I didn't cover anything in the general sense on this one, feel free to post or IM on the matching process.
Adrienne (PNAM-2003) - and proud LifeGift and NMDP potential donor.
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