NYU Hospital Absolved In Kidney Transplant Malpractice Suit

The Wall Street Journal reported on the decision of a Queens jury late last week that New York University Langone Medical Center physicians are not liable for a kidney transplant patient's cancer. The patient became ill with cancer after receiving a donated kidney from a donor who had uterine cancer, which was discovered after the transplant procedure.

The widow of patient Vincent Liew, Kimberly Liew, sued the NYU hospital for leaving the kidney inside her husband after it was discovered that the donor had untreated uterine cancer. She claimed that the doctor told her deceased husband that the chances of contracting cancer were very slim.

But according to Robert Elliott, the New York injury lawyer representing NYU, Vincent Liew "vehemently fought" to keep his new kidney upon learning about the donor's cancer diagnosis. This fact particularly swayed the jury in favor of NYU, according to reporters.

The doctor stood by his statement that the likelihood of contracting cancer was slim but not impossible. The defense team also said that doctors urged the patient to have the organ removed as soon as Vincent Liew began experiencing severe pain but that he did not want to go back to using a dialysis machine.

He received the donated kidney in March 2002 from a 50-year-old stroke victim, developed the pain a month or so later, and died in September of that same year at the age of 37.

NYU released an official statement that its physicians "could not have predicted or even imagined" such an outcome but fell short of apologizing for the incident (perhaps to avoid sounding as if it were accepting blame).

Charles Alexander, an organ donation expert, said the transmission of undiagnosed diseases from a donor to a recipient is not common but is known to happen: