Liver Donation by a Trauma Patient: A Case Study in Placement

Abstract

Currently, more than 64 000 people are awaiting transplants in the United States. Transplant coordinators must do everything possible to ensure that viable organs from consented donors are transplanted. To evaluate donors and organ function, transplant coordinators rely on a multitude of diagnostic tests to determine donor organ suitability. How reliable are the results of these tests? The following case study presents an incident in which diagnostic test results were not accurate; as a result, transplant centers deferred what turned out to be a normal, atraumatic organ. The end result was that this organ was placed, but only after actual visualization in the operating room and the granting of full waivers to the transplanting center.