'Unregulated liver donation surgery killed my husband'

Post-Dispatch

May 11, 2005

An outspoken critic: Vickie Hurewitz checks on the progress of the office she and Rhonda Boone are setting up in Burnsville, N.C. (J. B. Forbes/P-D)

Mike Hurewitz

Schuylerville, N.Y.

Donated part of liver

Died from complications

The death of Mike Hurewitz in January 2002 put donor safety in the national spotlight.

It also led New York to become the first - and only - state to develop regulations to protect living liver donors.

Hurewitz, 57, a reporter for the New York Post, died three days after donating a portion of his liver to his brother at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. An autopsy revealed the presence of a rare bacterial infection that had infiltrated the portal vein in his liver and his esophagus, stomach, small intestine and lung, the New York State Health Department said in a report on its investigation into his death.

He lost consciousness after vomiting blood and fluids and died in a ward filled with 34 transplant patients cared for by a single first-year medical resident, the report said.

The health commissioner accused the center of providing Hurewitz with "woefully inadequate post-surgical care."

The state fined the hospital, citing the liver transplant unit for dozens of health code violations. It also established an expert panel to develop statewide regulations that cover risk counseling, donor screening and post-operative care.

The month before Hurewitz died, Mount Sinai bought a full-page ad in The New York Times, where it described itself as being "at the forefront of living-donor transplantation." At the time, it was one of the nation's largest and most respected live donor liver programs.

"They became complacent in many respects because of the large number of transplants performed and their previous success," state health department spokesman Robert Kenny said earlier this year.

The hospital voluntarily suspended its live donor liver program for two years.

In response to questions about the Hurewitz case, the hospital issued a written statement, saying: "The past three years have seen significant changes in the live-donor organ transplantation landscape, including steps to assure more fully informed choice by potential donors, as well as enhanced protocols to protect the safety of organ donors."

Mount Sinai's statement said it had improved staff-to-patient ratios, staff education, record-keeping, communications and patient monitoring.

Dr. Charles Miller, the surgeon who operated on Hurewitz and now is head of the liver transplant program at the Cleveland Clinic, said the infection Hurewitz developed probably came from a lobster dinner he had following the surgery.

"I think this case is a terribly unfortunate thing that happened and affected a lot of people," he said. ". . . I think what's really important and what people are really interested in is how we go forward in the future."

Hurewitz's widow, Vickie, settled a suit against Mount Sinai last year for an undisclosed sum. She's become an outspoken critic of liver transplants from live donors, pushing for a halt to the procedure until a national registry is created and can collect better data. She believes transplant centers don't receive enough oversight.

Hurewitz, 53, radiates intensity. She once hung her opinion around her neck while staging a one-woman demonstration near the White House. Her sign read: "Unregulated Liver Donation Surgery Killed My Husband."

In addition to poor post-surgical care, she blames inadequate donor screening for his death. Hospital records show her husband was being treated for high cholesterol with a drug that can damage the liver, was taking aspirin once a day to prevent heart disease and stroke, and was undergoing treatment for anxiety.

Over lunch in the log home she bought recently in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Hurewitz insisted her husband's death was preventable. A hallway in the modest one-story home is lined with photos documenting the couple's happy years together - Mike hiking in the Catskill Mountains, a beloved cat, the big white house they lived in at the time of his death. Hurewitz calls it the "wall of loss."

"He never should have been a donor."

Copyright © 2005 St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

This article posted June 25, 2005.