CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – The state’s insurance reserve fund is paying $250,000 to the family of a man who they say died after he got a lung transplant with lungs of the wrong blood type at a Charleston hospital.
A now-dismissed civil lawsuit filed in 2019 details the events of November 2018 when the patient was at MUSC waiting for a double lung transplant, with organs provided by a local non-profit. The patient went into surgery, but he never recovered from surgery and died shortly after. His family says the reason is the donor-supplied non-profit provided lungs that were the wrong blood type.
Documents say MUSC used the local non-profit to source the donor lungs for the patient. According to a now-dismissed lawsuit against the non-profit, it is required to do two blood tests on donated organs to confirm the blood type. The lawsuit alleged the tests on file for the pair of lungs in question came up inconclusive, but the suit goes on to say the agency marked the lungs as available and provided them to MUSC for the surgery anyway.
A doctor testified in an affidavit that the actions that led to the surgery and the patient’s death were not the standard of care and didn’t follow the required process to ensure safe surgery. MUSC tested the lungs after the patient’s complications and reported the lungs were blood Type A while the patient had blood Type O. These two blood types are incompatible.
MUSC retains the state insurance reserve fund for coverage. Despite the lawsuit against the organ agency being dismissed, the state insurance reserve fund is paying the family $250,000 just about six years after the surgery resulted in the patient’s death.
MUSC did not provide a comment on the insurance payment.
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State insurance pays widow $250K after medical mishap at local hospital
