UPMC gets approval to restart living donor transplant programs
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UPMC said today that the federal agency overseeing transplants said it could restart its living donor kidney and liver transplant programs immediately.
The transplant programs were shut down in early May after a bungled kidney transplant resulted in a kidney being transplanted that came from a donor who was infected with hepatitis C.
UPMC also shut down its living donor liver program shortly therafter because the people who evaluated donors for both transplant programs were the same for both organs.
After meeting Thursday with the United Network for Organ Sharing and its Membership and Professional Standards Committee and reviewing changes UPMC will make to its program, "We are able to resume live donor transplants immediately," said Abhinav Humar, chief of UPMC's transplant division.
The kidney from the infected donor was transplanted despite a positive test for hepatitis C that was missed by as many as six people on the transplant team, including a transplant coordinator, Mimi Funovits, who was suspended for two weeks, and a surgeon, Henkie Tan, who was stripped of his title as head of the living donor program at UPMC because of the error.
The changes UPMC will make to its programs includes adding multiple layers of checks and balances to ensure that such a test result is not missed in the future, Dr. Humar said.
UPMC postponed four scheduled kidney transplants during the shutdown, and waiting for the restart -- which took about a month longer than UPMC thought it would -- was difficult, Dr. Humar said.
"No question, it was stressful," he said. "I'm most sympathetic to the patients that have had this period of time of uncertainty."
First Published July 14, 2011 5:58 pm
