Woman who got HIV from kidney transplant sues University of Chicago Hospital

A woman who contracted HIV and hepatitis C from a kidney transplant sued the University of Chicago Medical Center and one of its doctors on Monday, saying they should have told her the organ donor was gay.  In November, she was asked to come back to the hospital because 3 other people who had received organs from the same donor had tested positive for HIV.  She said she was not told at the time of the transplant that the donor who was killed in an automobile accident had engaged in male-to-male activity, but that had she been told of this, she would not have gone ahead with the operation.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines say that gay men who are sexually active should not be organ donors unless the patient is in imminent danger of death.  The guidelines also say patients should be informed if a donor had engaged in homosexual activity.  I wonder how fair this policy is.  I understand that high-risk activity is not to be taken lightly, but what about gay men in monogamous relationships with people who are not HIV-positive?  

I know of the patient who received the heart from this same donor.  He was on the verge of death prior to the transplant.  His quality of life after the transplant was far better than it was prior to receiving the heart, and he believed he would not have had the opportunity to feel better again and to live longer without the operation.  He did not have sex with his wife between having the operation and finding out he was HIV positive.  He did not blame the hospital or the physicians and he did not intend to sue them.  

HIV tests require one week to get the results back, and organs would be dead by that time, and therefore useless to the recipients.  What if a hospital has no way of knowing if a donor has engaged in high risk activity?  I know many physicians who find this scenario horrifying -- the potential of being sued for yet another situation that they may not be responsible for.  

This situation is unprecedented for hospitals and physicians alike.  Nothing like this has ever happened before, there are no studies or lawsuits regarding this scenario, and its results are potentially devastating, both for the hospitals as well as for the patients and their families.  There is a question of what the patients' quality of life will be, since many of the medications that donor transplant recipients will be on stimulate white blood cells, which HIV medications do as well.  HIV drugs have become quite effective, and the lifespans of infected persons are longer now than ever before.  The patients potentially could feel well and live another ten to twenty years because of the medications, which they may not have had the potential for prior to receiving their organs.  For the heart recipient, the infected heart gave him more time to live. 

I am curious to see how many millions of dollars this woman will make...