The group responsible for monitoring the national organ transplant network issued a public rebuke of the liver transplant program at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Los Angeles. The hospital shut down the program last year after it emerged that a wealthy Saudi was bumped up on its waiting list ahead of other patients.
The rebuke is the first time the United Network for Organ Sharing has ever publicly punished a member institution. The scandal at the program has led to calls in Washington by critics like Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) for stricter oversight of the national transplant system. The troubles at St. Vincents were followed by a similar story at UC Irvine, where patients died while awaiting kidney transplants.
- see this article from the Los Angeles Times