An Ohio hospital performed a kidney transplant on the wrong patient earlier this month, placing two of its employees on administrative leave over the incident.
University Hospitals in Cleveland (UH) admitted to the mistake, which took place on Jul. 2, in a statement Monday. The patient who received the transplant is compatible with the kidney and is expected to recover, according to the statement.
”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,” UH spokesman George Stamatis said in the statement. “The University Hospitals Transplant Program is comprised of a highly qualified, multidisciplinary team of experts with decades of transplant care delivery and research experience.”
Dr. Niraj Desai carries a kidney to a recipient during a kidney transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital June 26, 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
As major surgeries, kidney transplants have a number of potential complications, such as blood clots, infection, and heart attacks, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The hospital placed two employees on leave over the incident, but no explanation was offered for how the mix-up occurred. (RELATED: Scientists Have Created Embryos Made Of Both Human And Monkey Cells In Search For Transplant Organs)
“Two of our caregivers are on administrative leave pending the determinations of our investigation,” Stamatis said.
The hospital notified the United Network for Organ Sharing, the organization that manages the national organ transplant system, about the incident.
“This is not the norm, I’d say 99.99 percent of the time, everything does go well,” Heather Mekesa, chief operations officer for organ procurement organization Lifebanc, told WKCY. “In the last two decades this has not occurred in Ohio.”
“We have offered our sincerest apologies to these patients and their families,” Stamatis said. “We recognize they entrusted us with their care.”
A spokesperson for University Hospitals declined to answer any further questions.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.