The Department of Health report on the case in which organs from an HIV-positive donor were transplanted into five patients only detailed the findings of an investigation into the incident and was not a final decision on punishment, officials said yesterday.
The report, publicized on the department’s Web site earlier in the day, will soon be submitted to the Taipei City Department of Health and other agencies, pending further investigation, Department of Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) said.
People involved in the case will also be invited to have their say, Chiu told lawmakers during a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee.
Chiu’s remarks came amid criticism from Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the former head of National Taiwan University Hospital’s transplant team, that the health department had decided to penalize him before its investigation was complete and did not give him a chance to defend himself during the investigation.
The department’s report said hospital mismanagement was the main cause of the botched transplants.
The hospital management failed to observe standard procedures for organ transplants, the head of the organ transplant team failed to properly check the donor’s HIV test results and the medical technicians failed to notify the doctors that the donor was HIV positive, the report said.
“As the case resulted from the hospital’s mistakes, the five recipients of the HIV-infected organs do not qualify for state compensation,” Bureau of Medical Affairs Director Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said.
The hospital will cover all medical expenses for the recipients and is in discussions with their families about compensation, Shih said.
Three of the recipients have been discharged from hospital, and all five have been informed that they had received HIV-positive organs, he said, adding: “They have all tested HIV-negative so far.”
On Aug. 27, the hospital admitted that its transplant team did not follow standard operating procedure while carrying out the transplants on Aug. 24.
The team relied on information that was passed on by their organ transplant coordinator via telephone, which resulted in a misunderstanding, the hospital said.
The team also failed to check the donor’s HIV test results in the computer database before transplanting kidneys, a lung and a liver into four patients, the hospital said.
The donor’s heart was sent to National Cheng Kung University Hospital where it was transplanted into a fifth patient.
The incident marked the first time that organ transplants in Taiwan have left recipients at risk of acquiring HIV.
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