Couple suing UPMC over kidney transplant
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Michael Yocabet and Christina Mecannic speak to the media at their attorney's office regarding their lawsuit against UPMC.
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Four months after learning she was hepatitis C positive and passed the disease to her boyfriend by giving him one of her kidneys for a transplant, Christina Mecannic said Tuesday she still can't believe how she was told.
It was May 6, and she and her boyfriend of 21 years, Michael Yocabet, were asked to come to UPMC Presbyterian. They thought it was just a checkup, coming a month after Ms. Mecannic's kidney was transplanted into Mr. Yocabet, who has Type 1 diabetes and diabetic nephropathy. The doctor asked to first meet Ms. Mecannic in an exam room.
"He asked me if I ever cheated on Michael and if I ever used drugs, specifically cocaine. I said I hadn't," she said at a news conference Tuesday. "Then he told me I was hepatitis C positive and that it was my choice whether to tell [Michael] or not."
In two malpractice lawsuits the couple filed Tuesday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court against UPMC Presbyterian, University of Pittsburgh Physicians, four doctors and one nurse, they allege, among other claims, that that proposal from the doctor -- who is not named in the lawsuit -- was an attempt to "cover up" the errors in the case.
PG VIDEO: TRANSPLANT LAWSUITThe 12-count lawsuits -- one filed for Ms. Mecannic and one for Mr. Yocabet -- allege acts of professional negligence, corporate negligence, intentional and negligent misrepresentation, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. They ask for compensatory and punitive damages. The lawsuits ask for a jury trial.
When it discovered the error earlier this year, UPMC shut down its living kidney donor transplant program for two months until it made changes to how it keeps tabs on test results, and federal regulators allowed it to restart.
Responding to the lawsuits, UPMC said in a statement Tuesday: "We sincerely regret the human error that caused this situation, however any allegation of a cover-up is completely false. Once the error was discovered, UPMC disclosed the information to the patients involved and UNOS. We voluntarily suspended our live-donor program and have fully complied with all investigations. The well-being of our patients remains our highest priority."
First Published September 21, 2011 12:00 am
