Parents' Hospital Lawsuit Says Teen was "Killed" for Organs
The parents of an 18-year-old boy who suffered a brain injury in a 2007 snowboarding accident say his doctors “intentionally killed” him to harvest his organs. According to an article that appeared on www.abcnews.com, Michael and Teresa Jacobs of Ohio filed a lawsuit in March in the U.S. District Court of Western Pennsylvania, claiming that doctors “hastened” their son Gregory’s death by delaying treatment and ultimately pulling his breathing tube.
Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs said their son had not been formally declared brain dead when surgeons began the transplant procedure and are seeking $5 million in damages.
The medical malpractice lawsuit in Pennsylvania said that he would have lived, or, at the very least, his life would have been prolonged. The family claims that if their son had been properly treated, he would have had a chance of substantial recovery.
They have charged doctors at Hamot Medical Center in Erie, Pa., and a representative of the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE) in Pittsburgh.
The Hamot Medical Center and the organ center maintained that the treatment administered was “timely, appropriate and well-documented.”
The suit also alleges that the Center for Organ Recovery and Education benefited by obtaining Gregory Jacobs’ organs “for transfer and sale to other individuals, who then paid money, a portion of which went to CORE, for the wrongful procurement of the organs.”
It also alleges that Mr. Jacobs was pressured into signing a do-not-resuscitate order and authorizing the organ transplant. The teen's heart, liver, and kidney were donated.
As soon as the order was signed, the hospital began preparing Gregory Jacobs for organ donation, the lawsuit charges. The family was told that Gregory was brain dead and would not recover so they signed the organ transplant document.
According to the attorney for the Jacobs family, “brain death” was never recorded by the hospital, and in fact, their son did not meet any of the criteria for brain death. He contends health officials moved too quickly to harvest Gregory’s organs.
When a patient, such as Gregory Jacobs, has been treated with substandard care by a doctor or healthcare provider and has suffered an injury or disability as a result, the patient has been the victim of medical malpractice. Misdiagnosis, failure to diagnose, surgical errors, prescription drug errors, birth injuries, failure to treat diseases, delay in treatment, and negligence are just a few examples of medical malpractice. If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice in Pennsylvania, please contact Cherry Fieger and Marciano, LLP today for a free consultation with a skilled Philadelphia medical malpractice attorney.
In severe cases of medical malpractice when a patient dies as a result of the negligence by the healthcare provider, the patient has been the victim of medical malpractice and wrongful death. In most cases, a Pennsylvania wrongful death claim may be handled along with a medical malpractice claim.
