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Published on August
15, 2006
© 2006- The Press Democrat
BYLINE: LORI A. CARTER
After three years on a transplant waiting list,
Diane Jurrens hoped her new kidney would allow
her to resume activities like theater, opera and
entertaining others.
But six months after receiving a transplanted
kidney at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, her
husband said doctors delivered devastating news:
The donor organ had to be removed; it was
cancerous.
Jurrens died of cancer four months later. She
was 48.
Her husband, Darwin Jurrens of Santa Rosa, is
suing the hospital, its transplant center and
medical personnel involved in the June 2005
transplant.
In the suit, Jurrens charges medical personnel
failed to properly screen the donor and organ
and they failed to quickly remove the cancerous
kidney, which ultimately led to his wife's
death.
The suit, filed July 28 by Santa Rosa attorney
Richard Sax, alleges negligence, malpractice and
severe emotional distress. Jurrens is seeking
unspecified monetary damages.
Memorial Hospital spokesman Kevin Andrus said it
is hospital policy not to comment on pending
litigation.
Andrus said the hospital hasn't experienced
similar problems with any other transplants at
its Northern California Kidney Transplant
Center. The center has performed 388 transplants
since 1988.
Nor have there been any problems with Golden
State Donor Services, which is responsible for
providing suitable donor organs to the hospital,
he said.
Golden State Donor Services is not named in the
suit.
Sax said the case is in its early stages, with
investigators still trying to gather information
about the deceased donor -- a Michigan woman --
her medical history, other potential organ
recipients and what screening procedures were
conducted on Jurrens' transplanted kidney.
"We want to know if it was tested or not, or
whether it was adequate,'' he said.
Although born with deformed kidneys, Diane
Jurrens lived a full life after receiving a
transplanted kidney in 1985 at age 29, her
husband said. She hoped a second new organ would
give her another 15 good years.
An only child with no children, Jurrens lived
with her husband of 14 years in Guam for a time
but returned to California when her kidney
failed. She underwent dialysis while on the
transplant waiting list from 2002 to 2005.
Darwin Jurrens, 44, stopped working as a
hardwood floor finisher as Diane's health
worsened and took over her in-home health care.
The suit says Jurrens felt sick shortly after
her August 2005 discharge from Memorial and
doctors denied her request to biopsy the new
kidney to determine if it was causing her
illness.
In March, Jurrens said, local doctors received
information that his wife's kidney donor had
ovarian cancer and the donor's other kidney was
provided for transplant at UCLA Medical Center.
That recipient, a 58-year-old man, was diagnosed
with cancer from the transplanted kidney, he
said.
On March 6, Jurrens' doctors told her she had
contracted cancer from the diseased kidney, the
suit says. Two days later, the kidney was
removed.
"By that time, she already had cancer cells in
her stomach and lungs. I just knew from the time
they told me about this that Diane was a goner
because of the cancer,'' Darwin Jurrens said.
"But I thought she'd last a lot longer.''
During the next few months, Jurrens underwent
dialysis and chemotherapy, but she died June 20.
Darrell McDonald, who works with Sax, said he is
investigating a change in national organ
screening procedures that no longer requires
testing for cancer markers in organ donors.
David Heneghan, a spokesman for the California
Transplant Donor Network in Oakland, said three
main conditions rule out organ donation:
* HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
* A certain strain of hepatitis B.
* Cancer that has metastasized outside the
central nervous system.
A social-behavioral survey of the donor's
medical history is conducted to determine any
pre-existing conditions or potential
disqualifying factors.
If the donor's ovarian cancer hadn't been
diagnosed and wasn't in the family history, it
may not have raised red flags, he said.
A donor organ would likely be scanned and
physically examined before transplantation, said
Annie Moore, a spokeswoman for the Richmond,
Va.-based United Network for Organ Sharing,
which administers the nation's organ procurement
and transplantation network and is named in
Jurrens' suit.
But, she said, not every disease can be detected
or prevented.
"Anytime you have a transplant, there are risks
that are involved, as in any operation,'' Moore
said. ``And you also have to weigh the risks of
life without the transplant.''
In addition to the hospital and the organ
sharing network, the suit names Drs. Thomas
Duckett, James Palleschi, Desmond Shapiro, Gopa
Green and Benjamin Fritz and nurse Nancy Swick,
who coordinates the transplant center.
You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at
568-5312 or lcarter@pressdemocrat.com.
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