HOUSTON — Last week, we reported that Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center was putting a pause on its liver donation program because of a “pattern of irregularities” with donor acceptance criteria. They’ve now stopped their kidney transplant program, too.
In a statement provided to KHOU 11 Tuesday, Memorial Hermann said even though the issue was limited to the liver donation program, the kidney program was put on hold because of the two programs' leadership structure.
“Because there is a shared leadership structure over both the liver and kidney transplant programs, we have made the very difficult decision to voluntarily inactivate the kidney transplant program as we evaluate a new physician leadership structure,” the statement reads.
Editor's note: VIdeo above is from Friday night after Memorial Hermann halted the liver donation program.
The hospital didn’t give specifics about what the irregularities were, but said they had to do with criteria such as weight and age of deceased donors in the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) transplant information database. That database is for patients on the liver transplant waiting list at Memorial Hermann.
The hospital said they are working with families and patients impacted by the stoppage. They also said their investigation is ongoing and they are cooperating with regulatory agencies.
KHOU 11 is following this story. Watch for updates throughout the day.