There are numerous sick patients who are in dire need of organ transplants. Some even die while on the wait list. One man was thrilled to find out that he was finally off the list and getting a kidney, but was soon told that the transplant surgery had been canceled due to hospital administrative issues.
ABC news reports on one man's cancelled kidney transplant. How would you feel if you spent seven years waiting for a kidney donor – and finally got one – but the surgery was cancelled due to internal hospital issues? One man was crushed today after finding out his organ transplant was cancelled.
Did the hospital have just reasons for canceling the surgery?
The hospital told the man the surgery was cancelled due to a possible worker’s strike and did not offer any other possible dates for the surgery. Is it fair that a man’s life is hanging in the balance because a hospital cannot come to an agreement with its workers? ABC reports, “The one-day strike is the result of a disagreement over ‘reckless and unsafe staffing,’ according to a statement the health care workers’ union AFSCME gave.”
The man has three children and has had a great deal of difficulty finding a donor because his blood type is O-negative.
“His sister is the only match in his family, but she already donated a kidney to him 12 years ago. (Most people need more than one kidney transplant over their lifetimes.) Once that kidney failed, he needed to look beyond his family for a match. After launching a Facebook campaign to find one, the man found a donor who lived in Tennessee. Because the donor lived out of state, his insurance wouldn’t cover her travel and lodging expenses during the surgery. So he used gofundme.com and raised $5,000 in two days,” according to ABC. But the hospital has told the man that they cannot schedule him again until 2014. He is trying his best to get re-scheduled much sooner; the man has been living on dialysis for a year now.
