Mike Findley and his wife Mary have agreed to settle their Boston medical malpractice lawsuit over an unsuccessful kidney transplant that he received at Tufts Medical Center for $1.25 million. The agreement was reached with the hospital, which was called New England Medical Center at the time, Drs. Krista Johansen, Erick Schadde, and Lauren Cornella and Nurse Janet A. Turgeon right before their Massachusetts personal injury trial was set to begin in Suffolk Superior Court.
The couple had accused doctors of botching what should have been the perfect kidney match in 2003. The donor kidney, which had comes from Mike’s brother Jeff, was the perfect match, but the Findleys contend that inexperienced physicians, administrative breakdowns at the teaching hospital, and understaffing allegedly contributed to its death just one week after the transplant, which took place on June 25, 2003.
According to Mike’s Boston medical malpractice attorney, following the transplant procedure, doctors and nurses failed to respond properly even though they knew that the patient’s urine output was dramatically reduced-a sign that the new kidney was failing. No attending physician was called and a renal ultrasound wasn’t ordered until the next day. Also, three of the doctors involved were in training and two were interns that had been working there for less than a month.
Mike was forced to undergo a second transplant, but that kidney has also failed. He is currently on a national kidney transplant list with an approximately 4- to 5-year waiting list.
Kidney Transplants
The National Kidney Foundation says that nearly 80,000 people are waiting for a new kidney. Doctors cannot afford to make mistakes that can cause a kidney transplant to fail. This type of medical error can make the different between life and death for a patient. Also, successful kidney transplant can significantly improve the patient’s quality of life.
Couple, hospital settle for $1.25M in kidney transplant suit, Boston Herald, August 15, 2010
Related Web Resources:
National Kidney Foundation