Kidney Recipient Gets HIV, From Gay Donor; Sues Hospital
The woman is the fourth patient to contract hepatitis and HIV from the donor, who had been killed in a car accident in 2007.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
(UPI) – A lawsuit contends a Chicago hospital didn't tell a patient her new kidney came from a homosexual donor who turned out to have hepatitis and the HIV virus.
The 33-year-old patient, whose name was not revealed, sued the University of Chicago Medical Center on the grounds that she would have refused the new organ if she had know the donor came from a high-risk lifestyle, the Chicago Tribune said Tuesday.
The woman is the fourth patient to contract hepatitis and HIV from the donor, who had been killed in a car accident in 2007. The patient tested negative prior to organ removal, likely because the infection was recent, the Tribune reported.
The Chicago Sun-Times said federal regulations require transplant patients be told if they are receiving organs from a gay donor due to the risk of HIV and AIDS being involved.
The plaintiff in the case had the kidney removed and is back on dialysis. However she has tested positive for both hepatitis C and HIV.
LINK (http://www.600kcol.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=104668&article=4603114)
edit: This was the take 25 minutes after the story was cut.
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Woman who got kidney tainted with HIV sues
NON-EMERGENCY SITUATION | Alleges doctor knew donor was high-risk
November 18, 2008
BY KARA SPAK Staff Reporter
A 33-year-old woman who tested positive for HIV and hepatitis C after receiving an infected kidney during an organ transplant at the University of Chicago Medical Center is suing the hospital and a surgeon on the transplant team.
Jane Doe, the plaintiff’s alias, was one of four people who received infected organs from the single male donor at Chicago area hospitals in January 2007, said Thomas Demetrio, the woman’s attorney. All four were diagnosed with HIV and hepatitis C after the transplants, Demetrio said.
“Emotionally she’s pretty devastated, to be honest,†he said. “She’s just coping with the hand that’s been dealt her.â€
The suit claims Dr. J. Richard Thistlewaite and others at the hospital’s transplant team were told by Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network that the donor was a homosexual who died in a car collision. The transplant team never told the recipient — whose condition was non-life threatening— the donor was homosexual, which the suit claims is considered “high risk†for organ donation.
A spokesman for the hospital did not have an immediate comment.
Demetrio said the Center for Disease Control’s guidelines state that unless the case is life or death, the recipient must be told the background if the donor is a gay man.
<SNIP> (http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1283963,Woman-suing-hospital-chicago-HIV-organ-111708.article)
A more thorough article on the story.