'There was no mention of the complications Danny suffered'

Post-Dispatch

May 10, 2005

Rhonda Boone on the front porch of her log home in Burnsville, N. C., that she shared with her husband, Danny (J. B. Forbes/P-D)

Danny Boone

Burnsville, N.C.

Donated part of liver

Died from multiple complications

Danny Boone, 41, died in the hospital at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1999 after a series of problems that began when he was accepted as a liver donor for his half brother.

A lawsuit the family filed against the hospital and doctors alleged Boone should have been disqualified as a donor based on the screening done before the surgery.

Rhonda Boone said she learned from medical records after his death that her husband had suffered from fatty liver disease, an enlarged liver and spleen, and a condition in which a ligament surrounding the main artery leading into the liver chokes off blood flow.

"It was just astounding how simple the surgeons made this procedure sound," she said. "Danny ended up with so many complications it's unbelievable."

Neither the surgeon nor the hospital would comment on Danny Boone's care.

Medical records show his kidneys failed. He developed severe pancreatitis. His incision became infected. Bile leaked into his abdomen. He went into septic shock. The remaining portion of his liver rotated, blocking the bile ducts.

Danny Boone had five surgeries to try to repair the damage. He died 21 days after the transplant.

The federal advisory committee on organ transplantation estimates that bile leaks occur 5 percent to 15 percent of the time and are the most common liver transplant complication.

"There was no talk about bile leaks," Rhonda Boone said. "There was no talk about rotated livers. There was no mention of the complications Danny suffered."

She sued. University of North Carolina transplant officials declined to comment on any aspect of the case or about living donation in general. "The Danny Boone case has been settled and is closed, so we don't have any further comment about it," said Stephanie Crayton, spokeswoman for the university hospital.

Danny Boone's medical records show he was the victim of a string of medical errors. A surgical sponge was sewn inside of him. He was accidentally overdosed on morphine, twice. And at one point, a medicine needed to treat his injured liver was unavailable.

Despite all she's been through, Rhonda Boone remains a steadfast supporter of live donation. But the small-town, third-grade teacher is working to enact safeguards, including stricter regulation of transplant centers, standardized procedures for donor screening, and mandatory reporting of deaths and serious complications to a central agency.

"Danny died as a direct result of a lack of regulations, guidelines and standards relating to living donors," she said. "Because there were no regulations, my husband was an uninformed, unacceptable donor who was accepted anyway."

Copyright © 2005 St. Louis Post Dispatch.

This article posted June 23, 2005.