Officials at University Hospitals in Cleveland have placed two caregivers on administrative leave after a patient received a kidney was meant for someone else. Although the kidney matched the incorrect recipient and said recipient is expected to recover, the hospital delayed the other patient’s surgery because of their screw up. The hospital has since apologized for the mistake that occurred earlier this month.
University Hospitals said it alerted the United Network for Organ Sharing, a non-profit that leads the network of transplant hospitals in the U.S. for the federal government.
“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.”
“We have offered our sincerest apologies to these patients and their families,” hospital spokesperson George Stamatis said in a statement. “We recognize they entrusted us with their care. The situation is entirely inconsistent with our commitment to helping patients return to health and live life to the fullest.”
The hospital will begin an investigation on how the mistake occurred.
The incident comes amid a great need for kidney donors in the U.S., as the kidney transplant waiting list is the longest compared with all other organs. At time of writing, 90,318 people were in need of a kidney transplant in the U.S., versus 11,845 for liver, and 3,576 for heart.
According to Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network data, University Hospitals of Cleveland has carried out 2,761 kidney transplants since 1988, including 1,920 with deceased donors, and 841 with living donors. 95 of those have happened so far this year.
