Liver Transplant Complications

Liver Transplant Complications

Complications may be a part of any surgery.  With a surgery as serious as a liver transplant, the complications may be life-threatening.  The Wall Street Journal recently reported that a liver transplant surgeon at a local hospital resorted to dubious practices, using livers from questionable donors.  It was reported that the physician performed transplants on patients who may not have needed or been eligible for them.

The article indicated the doctor harvested partial livers from living donors to use on persons who may not have actually needed transplants, placing both donors and recipients at risk for serious complications. The hospital reportedly was made aware of this physician's questionable practices some years before he was actually dismissed. While they eventually took action, the long delay in doing so and the number of persons who reportedly suffered in the meantime, raise continuing questions about the inability or unwillingness of our medical system to effectively look out for patients.

Generally, complications that may have resulted from unnecessary or poorly done transplant procedures include severe bleeding, neurologic injury, respiratory injury, death on the operating room table, bile leaks, bile duct strictures, infections, rejection, chronic pain and adhesions and the need for long-term transplant rejection drugs that would have otherwise been unnecessary.

Pittsburgh medical malpractice attorney Deborah Maliver was a practicing physician before she went to law school, and she has the ability to evaluate the details of any medical malpractice claim and knows what experts to call to get answers. 

For a free consultation about your claim for surgical negligence, contact a medical malpractice lawyer at Biancheria & Maliver, in Pittsburgh.