http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/05/nyregion/05LIVE.html

April 5, 2002
 

 

State Checks 41 Liver Surgery Cases at Hospital Where Donor Died

 

By SUSAN SAULNY

 

State health officials are now responding to requests to investigate 41 liver surgery cases at Mount Sinai Hospital, where a patient died in January after donating part of his liver.

Robert Kenny, a spokesman for the State Department of Health, said 32 cases involved deaths. In the nine remaining cases, survivors requested inquiries based on claims of inadequate care, and two of those cases concerned liver donors.

The state began receiving calls for investigations after the death of Michael Hurewitz, a healthy man who had donated part of his liver to his brother in January. Although the operation was completed without complications, Mr. Hurewitz died three days later, and a state investigation held the hospital accountable and cited poor post-surgical care.

Mount Sinai is considered a leader in the field of adult living-donor transplants, and the January death was the first in the program. Mr. Hurewitz was one of 34 patients in the transplant ward being cared for by one first-year resident, the state inquiry found. The hospital was fined $48,000 and banned from performing living-donor surgery for six months.

The hospital submitted a report to the state last month saying it was making changes to improve the care in the transplant ward. The changes included increasing medical staff levels and barring first-year residents from treating patients in the ward.


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The hospital report, called a "plan of correction," will be made public after the state completes its investigation, Mr. Kenny said.

Joan Lebow, a spokeswoman for Mount Sinai, said the hospital would cooperate with the state but added that she could not discuss details of any of the cases being investigated

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