Story Archive

Standard of Carelessness

A nurse emptied a slush machine, and thereby dumped Paul Fudacz Jr.’s kidney into the medical waste. Fudacz had gone to Ohio’s University of Toledo Medical Center to save his dying sister with one of his kidneys, but his donation was spoiled by a nurse fresh from her lunch break who mistakenly thought the kidney had already been moved to Sarah Fudacz’s room, a lawsuit says. Because the kidney had been junked with unsanitary waste, the family claims, it could not be used, and Sarah Fudacz had to receive more dialysis, four related operations, and ultimately an less-well-matched kidney. “We apologize sincerely,” says the hospital’s chancellor, but its lawyers claim the mistake didn’t constitute “gross negligence,” and did not mean the hospital had not satisfied “accepted standards of care.” (AC/CNN) ...In other words, the medical center thinks it threw away a gift of life without doing anything wrong, but it’s very sorry.