I've been following a story via AOL news over the past week about a 17-year-old girl from Mexico who was undergoing a heart and lung transplant here in the US. After something like a 3-year wait, she went in for the operation with doctors saying she would only last another 6 months at best without it. Fair enough.

I don't know how they could mess up something so basic, but they transplanted organs that were a completely different blood type from the girl. Of course her body rejected them almost immediately and she went into a coma and ended up on life support as a result. A stupid error like this would be enough in my mind to have a damn good case against the hospital for criminal negligence, but it gets worse.

A few days later they found another donor (correct blood type this time) and went ahead with the operation. Funny how it usually takes 3 years waiting to get a donor and then they get one in a few days, probably trying to make up for their error and avoid a lawsuit. I bet the hospital legal team was having a fit.

Anyway the operation itself appeared to be a success, but as a result of being on life support for so long the girl had suffered brain damage. A day or so after the operation, the doctors said she was brain dead with no chance of recovery, and then, according to AOL news, the hospital pulled the plug on the life support without informing her family first, and of course she died shortly afterward.

I can barely perceive the level of incompetence and negligence that appears to have been displayed by the hospital working on her. I know President Bush is currently pushing for lawsuits against doctors and/or hospitals to have some sort of limit set on them, which I agree with in many cases, but this is one case where the patient appears to have died as a clear and direct result of incompetence and gross negligence, and I hope the people responsible get sued millions, have their medical licenses revoked and even get some time in jail. It's manslaughter in my opinion.