Indiana Accident News

Indiana Organ Procurement Organization Sued For Medical Malpractice

An organ donor group in Indianapolis, Indiana is being sued for medical malpractice by two different parties, the Associated Press has reported. According to officials, the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization gave transplanted organs from a single organ donor to two men, both of whom died from cancer in the next two years. The organ donor had skin cancer, which allegedly spread to the two men who received the organs.

South Bend, Indiana, resident Anthony Taylor, 45, received a donated liver and kidney from the organ group and died nine months later in October of 2006 of complications from cancer. In the same say, James Fell, a 53-year-old man from Fort Wayne, Indiana, received the other kidney and died of cancer on September 30, 2007. He lived only a year after his transplant.

The organ donor died from the skin cancer melanoma, which spread to both her liver and kidneys before she died, according to Taylor's attorney and the Indianapolis Star. At the same time, Fell's attorney is arguing that the doctors and medical professionals who picked Fell's kidney were negligent and ignored signs that the organ may spread cancer to other patients.

The medical malpractice claims are now pending before the Indiana Department of Insurance, as separate complaints. Both families of the deceased men are claiming that the donated organs were not correctly or adequately screened before they were transplanted into the patients.

"I don't think it would be reasonable to expect in every donor situation that they would be able to screen it and investigate in such a way that you could rule out the possibility that this thing would never happen," Farnbauch said. "But I think there are situations - and we believe that this is one of them - where there may have been some telltale signs of melanoma that were not screened and investigated."

On the other side, the organ group claims that the organs were screened correctly, and that nothing more could have prevented the tragedy.

"Based upon what we can tell from our files, the procurement and screening were done in compliance with all state and federal regulations," said Susan Cline, the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization's attorney.

Whether or not negligence was involved, patients have received diseases from donated organs in the past and there is no way of ensuring that donor organs are sage. In the past, patients have gotten cancer, hepatitis, and HIV from their transplants. In many cases, they go to court for medical malpractice or settle out of court with the organ group involved.

"You have patients in desperate need of organs, and sometimes there's no way to be 100 percent safe." said Dr. E. Steve Woodle, chief of transplant surgery at the University of Cincinnati. "And if we were 100 percent safe in everybody, we would be letting a lot of useful organs go by the wayside."

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