Suspended UTMC nurse resigns

Part-timer had been on leave since botched transplant

9/12/2012

A University of Toledo Medical Center nurse involved in a botched kidney transplant surgery last month has resigned, a second nurse remains on paid administrative leave, and an administrator of surgical services who was suspended with pay returned to work last week.

Judith Moore, a part-time UTMC employee who was suspended with pay pending the results of a multiagency investigation, resigned on Monday, two hospital spokesmen confirmed.

Ms. Moore and Melanie Lemay, a full-time nurse, were suspended with pay after an Aug. 10 live donor kidney transplant surgery during which a viable kidney was accidently discarded and consequently ruined before it could be implanted into the donor's sister.

Edwin Hall, administrator of surgical services, was notified Aug. 27 that he would be on paid administrative leave and was reinstated to his job Friday with no change in title or his $164,999 annual salary, UTMC spokesman Tobin Klinger said.

Dr. Michael Rees, the kidney transplant surgeon who performed the procedure, was temporarily stripped late last month of his director title at the hospital. 

He was surgical director of renal transplantation and assistant director of the transplantation immunology laboratories services. Dr. Steve Selman, chairman of the department of urology, was given the title.

Dr. Rees is still a surgeon at the medical center.

Dr. Jeffrey Gold, chancellor and vice president for biosciences and health affairs at UTMC, said the change does not suggest Dr. Rees did anything wrong.

UTMC voluntarily suspended the live kidney donation program after the incident, and the hospitalhired Dr. Marlon Levy, surgical director, transplantation, at Baylor All Saints Medical Center at Fort Worth, to "review the policies, procedures, and practices of UTMC's living related donor program" and to review management of patients undergoing living related transplants. Dr. Levy's report on the program has not been completed, UTMC spokesman Jon Strunk said.

The kidney transplant program at UTMC, formerly the Medical College of Ohio, has operated for 40 years. It is the only organ transplant routinely performed at the hospital.

The family of the woman who was supposed to have received her brother's kidney has declined interview requests and has asked UTMC for privacy.

Contact Ignazio Messina at:  imessina@theblade.com or  419-724-6171.