More Former Patients, Families Sue UCI Over Liver Transplant Program

December 30, 2005

Santa Ana CA -- Lawsuits were filed Friday on behalf of the families of three people who died while waiting for liver transplants at UCI Medical Center, an attorney said.

Additional suits were filed on behalf of four people waiting for livers when the program was shut down last month amid allegations of mismanagement, attorney Lawrence Eisenberg said.

The suits bring to 16 the number of people represented by Eisenberg who either died of liver failure or were still waiting for transplants when the program was shut down, he said.

According to a federal report, 32 UCI patients died awaiting transplants in the last two years, even as the hospital in Orange turned away scores of organs.

One of the plaintiffs in the suits filed today is Magdi Hanna, who within a few months of leaving the UCI program, got a liver transplant at UCLA on Jan. 15, 2004, Eisenberg said.

Hanna alleges that the UCI program turned down six livers that could have been used for his transplant, and that he was never told, Eisenberg said.

A spokesman for the hospital could not be reached for immediate comment.

UCI officials said earlier that organs were turned down for various reasons such as the wrong size, weight or quality, although a report released by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network said that on at least three occasions, livers were turned down because no surgeon was available to operate on patients.

The lawsuits allege that patients were never told that the program did not have a full-time surgeon since July 2004, in violation of federal standards.

UCI spokeswoman Kim Pine said earlier that the program conscientiously tried to improve the program and implement recommendations, including actively working to recruit a surgeon.

The program shut down Nov. 10 when UCI was advised that Medicare would no longer reimburse for its liver transplants. Medicare acted after an investigation revealed inadequate staffing, poor survival rates and other mismanagement.

Plaintiffs who had to look elsewhere for transplants when the UCI program shut down include Joanne Cabrera, who had waited for a liver for eight years, and Isidro Flores and Donald Will, who had waited three years.

The three have had to start over with new tests and other procedures in an attempt to get on other transplant lists, Eisenberg said.

"UCI cannot compel another program to accept them," he said.

Those named in the new lawsuits who died while waiting for livers were Maria De La Luz Gomez, who died Feb. 21, 2003; Maria Elisa Kim, who died Jan. 28, 2004; and Joseph Saenz, who died July 30.

The lawsuits name the University of California Regents, UCI Medical Center, the UCI Division of Transplantation, doctors David Imagawa, Muhammad Sheikh and Sean Cao, and UCI Medical Center CEO Ralph Cygan.

Cygan was placed on leave last month while the university conducts a three- month investigation.

The lawsuits allege that although patients were told they had a reasonably good chance of receiving a liver transplant in a timely fashion, UCI performed only 24 transplants between 2002 and 2004, and five in 2005, while federal requirements require programs to perform at least 12 liver transplants a year.

Copyright © 2005 by NBC4.tv. City News Service contributed to this report.

This article posted January 28, 2006.