Hospital gives liver to higherst bidder - Saudi Embassy

[Maraya1969]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles hospital on Tuesday suspended its liver transplant program after allowing a Saudi patient to jump to the top of the waiting list and falsifying data to cover it up.

St. Vincent Medical Center said that two of its chief liver transplant surgeons had been fired and that it had launched a thorough investigation.

"This event appears to involve an individual who received a liver that was designated for transplantation in another patient," said Gus Valdespino, chief executive officer of St. Vincent Medical Center, which runs one of the largest organ transplant centers in California.

"Any breach of integrity regarding established transplantation procedures is unacceptable," Valdespino said.

The incident involved a 2003 transplant that was paid for by the Saudi Arabian Embassy and given to a Saudi patient who was in 52nd place on the liver transplant list.

Valdespino said the Saudi Embassy paid the $339,000 cost of the operation and hospital stay -- a figure 25 percent to 30 percent higher than the cost typically paid by U.S. insurance companies.

The identity of the patient was not revealed but officials said it appeared that the scheduled recipient, also a Saudi, was out of town when a matching liver became available. The team at St. Vincent transplanted the liver into a different Saudi national rather than following established procedure and sending the liver to the next highest suitable donor, who was at a nearby medical center.

Falsified records were subsequently submitted to the national agency that regulates transplants in the United States. The incident was discovered only after a recent routine audit by that agency.

The hospital has 75 patients currently on its waiting list and was contacting them on Tuesday to discuss options at other transplant centers.

St. Vincent said it deeply regretted the impact on patients of both the incident and the decision to suspend its liver transplant program but said it had no choice given a lack of qualified surgeons.


From Reuters: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-09-27T234919Z_01_DIT785745_RTRUKOC_0_US-TRANSPLANT.xml&archived=False

[Joe Turner]

1. Which Saudi friend of the Chimp is this? n/t

[McCamy Taylor]

2. My thoughts exactly.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MindPilot]

4. Preferential treatment for Saudis?! WTF!?

Did an American die so a Saudi could live? Was an American citizen pushed aside in favor of one of Bush's hand-holding cronies?

Did we forget that Saudis flew those planes into the WTC?

I'm so pissed I can hardly type. We blow the hell out of Iraq for no good reason, but then let the people who actually *did* 9/11 get head-of-line privileges at a US hospital.

Too bad the surgeon didn't make a "mistake". :grr:

[FormerDittoHead]

5. Welcome to the Republican Health Care plan! And introducing Soylent Green

It really is the neo-con / Ayn Rand dream come true - the highest bidder is simply the one who deserves it the most. I'm sure Jon Stossle would also approve - google for his commentary on price gouging during Katrina...

What a great "society" they think they can build! What a great "civilization"!

on edit: who's suppose to know how to spell "soylent"?

[Maraya1969]

6. Who's suppose to know what "soylent" means? I can't even find

it in the dictionary. Some help please?

[foo_bar]

8. it's the title of a famously bad (good?) Charlton Heston movie

*SPOILER WARNING*



















Soylent Green is peepul! It's made outta peepul!

[Chi-Town Exile]

7. If the Saudi Embassy tries to grab a kidney we might find Osama! nt

[Vinca]

12. If gas prices keep going up I might have one for sale! nt

[Moderator]

9. Maraya1969

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[PurityOfEssence]

10. capitalism in action

Hey, I'm an avowed capitalist, but it only works with many elaborate constraints and market substitutions.

This is just about money and favoritism; it's ugly and it shouldn't shock us at all.

In capitalism, the only sin is not having money.

Disgusting.

[MountainLaurel]

11. Not the first time, is it?

I vaguely recall a couple of celebs who had burnt out their livers with booze got moved up the transplant list. A baseball player?