woman opened her eyes

7/30/2019 Woman Opened Her Eyes

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Woman opened her eyes as doctors who thought

she was brain dead began to take out her organsfor donation

By Ashley Collman

PUBLISHED: 00:42 GMT, 9 July 2013 | UPDATED: 06:49 GMT, 9 July 2013

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Doctors at St. Joseph's hospital in Central New York were in the process of starting surgery to harvest a dead

woman's organs when that woman opened her eyes. She was still alive.

That massive mistake has now cost the hospital $6,000 after a federal inquiry in addition to another fine of

$16,000 after another patient fell and injured her head when she was left unattended in 2011, according to

reporting in the Syracuse Post-Standard.

Colleen S. Burns of North Syracuse, New York, 41, had been admitted to the hospital in October 2009 for a

drug overdose.


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Malpractice: St. Joseph's hospital in Central New York almost harvested a live woman's

organs in 2009

Because of a series of mistakes in evaluation, doctors believed that the woman was dead and started the

organ donation process.

The state Health Department investigation of the incident found that when Burns was first admitted, they

skipped a recommended treatment that would prevent the drugs she had taken - Xanax, Benadryl and a

muscle relaxant - from being absorbed by her stomach and intestines.

They also didn't do enough testing to see if she was free of drugs or perform enough brain scans.

Because they didn't perform enough of these scans, doctors believed that Burns was brain dead, when in

reality the over dose had put her in a coma.

After doctors said she was essentially brain dead, her family agreed to take her off life support and her organs

donated.

But the day before the organs were to be removed, a nurse performed a reflex test and found that Burns was

still reacting.

She scraped her finger on the bottom of one of Burns' feet and her toes curled downward, a sign that she wasstill alive.

And that wasn't the only sign of life. As she was being wheeled to the operating room, Burns' nostrils flared

and it seemed she was breathing independently from the respirator. Her lips and tongue were moving as well.

But doctor's ignored the nurse's observations which indicated Burns was still alive, and proceeded with the

surgery anyway.


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Mistakes: A federal report found that hospital officials didn't perform enough tests to

accurately access if Burns was brain dead

Before the procedure, Burns was given an injection of the sedative Ativan, but neither the sedative or the

observations of life were recorded in the doctor's notes for the procedure.

Dr. David Mayer, a general vascular surgeon and associate professor of clinical surgery an New York Medical

College, said the application of a sedative is quite strange.

'It would sedate her to the point that she could be non-reactive,' Mayer told the Post-Standard. 'If you have to

sedate them or give them pain medication, they're not brain dead and you shouldn't be harvesting their

organs.'

It wasn't until Burns opened her eyes in the OR that the procedure was called off.

Neither Burns or her family sued the hospital for malpractice. Sixteen months later, a determined Burns

successfully committed suicide.

Her mother, Lucille Kuss said her daughter wasn't upset about the incident.

'She was so depressed that it really didn't make any difference to her,' Kuss said.

It did, however, make a difference for the state Health Department and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid

Services. Both investigated the incident and found St. Joe's procedures lacking.

The hospital didn't even report the incident, nor conduct an investigation of their own.

It wasn't until after the Post-Standard started their investigation that the hospital put out any sort of explanation

for what happened.

According to the federal report: 'The hospital did not undertake an intensive and critical review of the near

catastrophic event in this case.'

The officials at the hospital did not 'identify the inadequate physician evaluations of (Burns) that occurred when


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nursing staff questioned possible signs of improving neurological function.'

Overall, the federal report found that the patient did not meet criteria for withdrawal of care.

The spokesman for the hospital said that they've learned from the experience and 'have modified our policies

to include the type of unusual circumstance presented in this case.'

In addition to the total $22,000 fine, the hospital was ordered to hire a consultant to review the hospital's

quality assurance program, implement the consultants recommendations and hire a consulting neurologist to

teach staff how to accurately diagnose brain death.Read more:

St. Joe's "dead" patient awoke as docs prepared to remove organs

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Comments (188)

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sleep tight tonight.

- me , here, United Kingdom, 09/7/2013 11:07

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"Scary! I can't believe they ignored the nurse's observations; it's almost as though they saw the patient as spare parts from the

outset. - Lee , Stockport, UK, 09/7/2013 10:32 ****** Believe it. Doctors are very arrogant. They don't like a nurse with just a 4 year

degree telling them they are wrong.

- Southern_Hoosier , Greenville SC USA, United States, 09/7/2013 11:07

Click to rate Rating 2


8/9

Report abuse

A Private Hospital behaving in such a way...unbelievable isn't it....especially when they charge patients....DM will be blasting the free

NHS next, and supporting the governments aim to introduce this wonderful US system of health 'care' to replace the NHS.

- Jane , Ludlow, 09/7/2013 11:06

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Tear up your donor card if they can make mistakes like that!!

- framptonite , dorchester, 09/7/2013 11:04


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Whilst this is a shocking story what I find more shocking is the general publics negativity towards being an organ donor themselves.

The need for transplanted organs is huge. One donor can help several other critically ill people have a chance at living. As far as I'm

concerned you could take every single organ from my body to save the life of another person/persons. The organs are no good to

me if I'm dead.

- Cheshiregirl , Chester, 09/7/2013 11:03


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This is why I will never voluntarily donate my organs. Ideally it should be that we can trust our medical services to look after us and

not use us as organ banks, but I trust our NHS no more than I would the Americans.

- Dutch Ovens , Still stuck here..., 09/7/2013 11:02


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I am speechless after reading this, my trust in the medical profession recently has been tenuous at best, now it has hit rock bottom.

- The Special One , London, United Kingdom, 09/7/2013 10:59


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I Wales now they 'presume that you have given consent' and can take your organs - what were the idiots in the Welsh assembly

thinking.

- John , Sunderland, 09/7/2013 10:57


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Organ snatching! while you're still alive. :-( - Shaz, By-the-Sea, United Kingdom, 9/7/2013..........Not much different from knocking

someone out and stealing a kidney is it? Except in those cases most of the victims lived. In a case like this they would harvest every

organ and the patient would be very dead. My driver's license was renewed last week and when they asked if I wanted to be an

organ donor, I said no. With the change in the law and the stories that I have read........the answer is NO.

- Jean , USA, 09/7/2013 10:54



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Fine of $16,000 US, this is a joke surely from the land of compensation, the surgeon should have been charged with assault (at the

very least) and the hospital should have been fined many more US$.

- it is true , England somewhere in the SW, United Kingdom, 09/7/2013 10:53


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