Hospital Puts Wrong Kidney in Transplant Patient

Friday, 18 February 2011 | by Pat's Picks

The LA Times says the transplant program at the University of Southern California has voluntarily shut down after placing a kidney into the wrong patient. Luckily, the kidney happened to be an acceptable match for the patient, who is doing fine. According to the hospital, the error occurred after two kidneys arrived at the hospital at the same time on a Saturday. After they realized the mistake, doctors scrambled to check the blood types of both kidneys—getting a mismatch can be deadly. Largely because the erroneously placed kidney was from someone with type O blood, the patient survived without harm.