Wrong Patient Gets Kidney Transplant At Ohio Hospital

Medical bed on wheels in the hospital corridor.

Photo: Getty Images

Two University Hospitals employees are on administrative leave after the wrong patient received a kidney transplant.

University Hospitals Spokesman George Stamatis confirmed to news outlets that the patient who was supposed to get the kidney will have surgery at a later date. The patient who mistakenly received the kidney is recovering.

Stamatis wrote in a statement released by University Hospitals that “we are dismayed” by the error.

The hospital is investigating the incident, WOIO reports.

"This is not the norm, I'd say 99.99 percent of the time, everything does go well," Heather Mekesa told WKYC, adding that she hopes the mistake doesn’t dissuade potential organ donors.

Mekesa serves as the Chief Operations Officer of Lifebanc, a nonprofit organization in Northeast Ohio that serves as the area’s “only nonprofit organ and tissue recovery organization,” its website states.

Here is the full statement from University Hospitals:

The University Hospitals Transplant Program is comprised of a highly qualified, multidisciplinary team of experts with decades of transplant care delivery and research experience. We are dismayed that an error recently occurred resulting in one patient receiving a kidney intended for another. The kidney is compatible and the patient is recovering as expected. Another patient’s transplant surgery has been delayed.
We have notified the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the organization that manages the national organ transplant system. We are also carefully reviewing this situation to understand what led to the error and to ensure that such an event will never happen again. Two of our caregivers are on administrative leave pending the determinations of our investigation.
We have offered our sincerest apologies to these patients and their families. We recognize they entrusted us with their care. The situation is entirely inconsistent with our commitment to helping patients return to health and live life to the fullest.

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