Arnold Schwarzenegger Watch: Calling the California Department of Health Services, the University of California and the Medical Board of California
Dr. Kenneth Matsummura (C) talks with campaign volunteers (R) Jasper Summer and Herman Waters about recalling California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in Berkeley, California, October 24, 2005. Matsummura, whose inventions include the first-ever artificial liver, has launched an effort to gather a million signatures to force a recall vote on Governor Schwarzenegger, who came to office two years ago following an unprecedented recall.
The Los Angeles Times and Dog Trainer has Organs Refused While Patients Die
Over the last two years, more than 30 people died awaiting liver transplants at UCI Medical Center in Orange as the hospital turned down scores of organs that might have saved them, according to a federal report.
More than 100 UCI patients still are waiting for transplants, and 28 have joined the roster this year alone — despite a staffing shortage that dampens their prospects for a transplant.
Although patients may not know it, the UC Irvine medical center has not had a full-time liver transplant surgeon since July 2004.
The center has performed just five liver transplants this year and has consistently fallen below the minimum number required by the federal government to maintain funding, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The low number of surgeries was not for lack of offers. Between August 2004 and July 2005, the hospital received 122 liver offers, most of them from the regional organ procurement agency, which coordinates donations and offers in Southern California. But only 12 were transplanted, including two that went to the same patient because the first one failed, according to the Aug. 5 federal report, obtained by The Times under the Freedom of Information Act.