Doctor Indicted for Falsifying Facts of Liver Transplant
Posted on 07. Jan, 2010 in News Stories
A federal grand jury indicted Dr. Richard Lopez, Jr. on Wednesday for lying and falsifying reports of a liver transplant he performed about six years ago. Back then, he was the head of the liver transplant program at St. Vincent Medical Center.
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It was April of 2003 when Margaret, then a 65-year old woman, visited Dr. Arnold because she was experiencing kidney failure. And then something bad happened…
In September 2003, a liver became available and was intended for a Saudi Arabian man, who happened to be out of the country. At that time, Dr. Lopez should have notified officials that the intended recipient was unavailable and allowed the liver to go to the backup patient at a nearby hospital. Instead, according to prosecutors, he ordered the liver to be put into another man (also from Saudi Arabia) that was 52nd on the waiting list.
At first, St. Vincent reported the name of actual recipient to the United Network for Organ Sharing (the national organization that coordinates organ transplants). However, Dr. Lopez later changed that report to name the original intended recipient. That patients’s name was then removed from the waiting list, even though Dr. Lopez continued to tell him that he was still on the list. He died a few months later.
Two years after the incident, others at St. Vincent finally uncovered the conspiracy and reported it to authorities. Although the charges mentioned some unnamed accomplices, only Dr. Lopez was prosecuted because he was considered the “architect of the coverup.” It is of note that Dr. Lopez is still a licensed physician in California with no disciplinary actions on his record. His motive also remains unclear.
The man who actually received the transplant is alive and well today.
Kuddle
Jan 20th, 2010
It states he was prosecuted, why does his license show “no” disciplinary actions? Our system is over protective of physicians. There are documented cases of doctors moving from state to state after repremendations of medical neglect, incompetence, sexual abuse, etc, etc. When will they be held responsible for their actions? When can we feel safe that the doctor our insurance companies force us to see are competent and caring physicians? When can we trust our legal system to insure appropriate disbarring of bad, uncaring doctores?
What_The_Heck
Jan 21st, 2010
Kuddle, I couldn’t agree more. Society puts doctors up on pedestals thereby forgetting that they are just people. People that do bad things sometimes and unfortunately are not convicted solely due to them being physicians. I suppose the same can be said of celebrities and such.