UCSF Cleared to Resume Living Kidney Donor Transplants

The San Francisco Chronicle online (SFGate.com) reports on the resumption of the iving kidney donor transplant program at UCSF. The donor died in November, shortly after the surgery to remove a kidney given to his sister. Excerpts of that story appear below with a link to the full story.

UCSF Medical Center has received the go-ahead to resume its living kidney donor transplant program after suspending it in December following the unusual death of a donor, hospital officials said Wednesday. 

The donor died in November, shortly after the surgery to remove a kidney to give to his sister.....

The donor, a 28-year-old San Francisco man whom the hospital would not identify, lapsed into a coma and died Nov. 2, just over a week after the kidney donation. 

The Organ Procurement and Transplant Network, which oversees hospital transplant programs, recommended that UCSF suspend its program during an investigation, and the hospital voluntarily stopped performing the living donor portion process on Dec. 16. 

An autopsy determined the man died from “lethal cardiac arrhythmia,” which is unusual, but it wasn’t caused by a surgical accident, said Christopher Wirowek, deputy director of the medical examiner’s office.