A transplant patient died after a surgeon failed to disclose that stomach contents had been spilled on organs used in NHS operations. The 36-year-old died from an aneurysm directly caused by infection from a donated liver, while two other patients became ill.
The incident occurred in 2015 but only came to light when one of the sick patients attended a hospital in Wales. It involved a surgeon from Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust, who cut the stomach of a donor while retrieving organs, spilling contents over other organs. The surgeon did not report the spill, and the organs were transplanted into three patients.
One recipient died after receiving an infected liver. A 44-year-old received a kidney and pancreas, and a 25-year-old parent from Wales received a kidney. The 25-year-old needed the donor kidney removed as an emergency after suffering extreme pain and internal bleeding, was placed in an induced coma, and given 16 blood transfusions.
The Oxford University trust has paid £215,000 in damages to the patient after they launched a legal challenge. The trust admitted breach of duty of care due to the surgeon's failure to record the cut. An NHS Blood and Transplant report concluded the infection likely arose during the retrieval procedure.
Solicitor Jodi Newton called it 'a completely unacceptable breach of duty of care'. The patient said: 'What angers me to this day is that the surgeon who removed the organs wasn't honest.' Prof Meghana Pandit, chief medical officer at Oxford University Hospitals, said: 'We are keen to ensure we do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen again.'
