According to the New York Daily News, Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, located in Camden, New Jersey, performed a successful kidney transplant on the wrong patient.
The 51-year-old patient had the kidney transplant surgery on Nov. 18. The patient that was supposed to get the transplant had the same name and similar age. The intended recipient was higher up on the matching list of United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).
“We have a profound responsibility to people who literally place their lives in our hands. Mistakes of this magnitude are rare, and despite the unusual circumstances of similar patient identities, additional verification would have prevented this error,” the hospital reportedly said in a statement.
“This is an unprecedented event in our respected 40-plus-year transplant program. As an organization committed to safety and process, we immediately instituted additional measures and educational reinforcement to help ensure this does not happen again.”
