Team head resigns over HIV organ accident
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Xinhua, September 1, 2011
The head of an organ transplant task force at Taiwan University Hospital has resigned, taking responsibility for the hospital's recent HIV-positive organ transplant accident.
Ko Wen-tse was responsible for forming and managing the hospital's organ transplant task force and also wrote the guidelines for the hospital's transplant team.
The team relied on information passed on by their organ transplant coordinator through the phone during which a misunderstanding occurred. The team failed to confirm the donor's HIV test results on the computer either before transplanting organs into four patients, according to local media reports.
The medical accident occurred on Aug. 24 when the transplant team of Taiwan University Hospital removed organs from a person who had been pronounced brain-dead at Hsinchu's Nanmen Hospital.
His heart went to a patient at the Cheng Kung University Hospital while his liver, a lung, and two kidneys were delivered to four recipients waiting at the Taiwan University Hospital.
Transplant team members at Taiwan University Hospital heard the coordinator on the phone saying the test results were non-reactive, and proceeded to perform four transplant procedures.
The Cheng Kung University Hospital took the Taiwan University Hospital transplant team's word that the organs were non-reactive and went ahead with the heart transplant.
After completing the transplant surgeries, medical staff examined the donor's medical records and only then learned that he was HIV-positive.
This accident marks the first time that organ transplants could lead to recipients contracting AIDS in Taiwan. The Taipei prosecutors office has begun probing the case.
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