A Nurse Accidently Threw Out A Kidney That A Brother Had Donated To His Sister

Sarah Fudacz from Toledo was waiting to receive a kidney that her younger brother Paul had donated to her. The operation was scheduled for August 10, 2012 but before Sarah could be transplanted the vital organ a nurse at the Medical Center in Toledo threw it away by mistake.

The woman was just a part-time nurse and it was one of her first shifts. She failed to understand the head nurse instructions which led to the unfortunate turn of events. The kidney was placed in a special temperature-controlled space when the nurse discarded it along with other contents not knowing the organ was in there.

After realizing it was thrown away the hospital did all they could to save the kidney itself. They made a quick investigation on how long the kidney was out of the temperature-controlled space. Despite it was not too long the doctors decided not to use it, because there was a small chance for the kidney of being unusable. After the failure the hospital put temporary hold on their donating program and put the nurse on paid leave while the investigation was complete.

At the end the nurse was suspended, because this was a mistake nobody have ever heard or seen before. The hospital spokesman stated that they have taken all the measures to avoid such incidents in the future.

Luckily for Sarah, the hospital managed to find another kidney for her and transported the girl to Colorado for the operation which took place on November 13, 2012.

However, the Fudacz family sued the hospital for throwing away their son’s kidney.

Statistically speaking there are more than 160,000 kidney transplants national wide every year and more than 4000 are dying every year waiting for a kidney.