Kidney Donor Program Suspended By UCSF Due To DONOR’S DEATH

Meanwhile, the transplant patient’s new kidney is functioning properly, said hospital officials, who declined to identify the deceased donor or the recipient.

The kidney donor had provided one of his kidneys to a recipient at the UCSF Medical Center in the month of October.

One San Francisco educator is proceeding with a surgery to help save the life of a 20-year-old former student, despite the death of a donor. There is an approximate percentage of 0.3% fatality in these cases. Although most of the transplants came from deceased donors, the living donor transplants provide better outcomes.

Following the death of a kidney donor in November, UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco has voluntarily inactivated its living kidney donor program, according to a KTVU report.

After the donor’s death, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) was immediately notified, the hospital said.

Health experts who are not part of the investigation cited multiple reasons for the possible deaths, which included surgical complications and preexisting medical conditions that might not have been detected before the surgery. The program has also see more kidney transplants than any other medical centre in the USA amounting to more than 10,000 since the year 1994.

The shutdown of the program leaves patients with kidney failure hanging.

Medical Director of California Pacific Medical Center’s kidney transplant program, San Fransisco’s Dr. Steven Katznelson called the death of the donor a “nightmare scenario”.

At the time, other hospitals, including UCSF, took over Kaiser’s kidney transplant patients.

Even if the program is now suspended, the UCSF will continue its transplants from dead donors.

UCSF indicated in a statement that the the safety of their patients is a “top priority” and that they’re making “every effort” to understand what led to the donor’s death. Considering that out of the 350 transplants, only 150 are made from living donors, this will not impact the region as heavy as a complete program suspension would.