The case of a teenager who died as a result of contracting rabies from a transplanted kidney went before a state appeals court for argument last Tuesday. The parents of the teenager filed their medical malpractice suit against the hospital where the transplant was performed, the doctor who harvested the kidney and the doctor that performed the transplant operation. The teenager was one of four people who died from the same donor's infected organs.

After receiving the diseased transplanted kidney, the teenager died within two days from rabies. The lawsuit claims the teenager could have lived despite kidney transplant surgery and therefore the surgery was unnecessary and premature. The lawsuit also argues the hospital and doctors acted negligently because they used a kidney from a person who had a history of drug use and incarceration. A history of drug use and incarceration indicates a higher risk of infection according to the lawsuit. At the time of the surgery, no medical personnel were aware the kidney was infected with rabies or that the donor had been infected with rabies. The donor had been bitten by a rabid bat before his death.

The lawsuit was originally filed in a Texas state court but the trial court judge dismissed the case before it went to trial. The district court judge dismissed the case because he ruled the medical expert opinion reports filed by the plaintiffs did not provide adequate information regarding how the doctors' failures lead to the teenager's death. The attorney for the doctors explained his clients did not have a duty to inform the teenager's parents of a risk that was unknown.

Source: dallasnews.com, "Appeals Court, Students Hear Arguments in Medical Malpractice Case of Teen Who Got Rabies From Transplanted Kidney," Scott K. Parks, 10/19/10