Trial Starts for Liver Transplant Recipient Suing Colorado OPO

A trial in which a liver transplant recipient is contending that his first transplant failed because the organ procurement organization (OPO) used a substandard solution to flush the cadaver liver has opened in Omaha.

Transplant patient Jim Smith, who fell into a brief coma after the 1994 transplant failure and lost much of his memory and some use of his arms and legs, is seeking damages in the trial from the then OPO, Colorado Organ Recovery.

Smith claims the transplant attempt failed because Colorado Organ Recovery, which retrieved the liver and sent it to the University Hospital in Omaha, used a solution called Eurocollins to flush out the liver instead of the widely used University of Wisconsin solution.

The Wisconsin solution was then used to preserve the liver while it was being transported to Omaha.

"The evidence will show that he became a guinea pig," attorney Marc Humphrey said in his opening statement. Humphrey said the difference between the two solutions is that Wisconsin solution preserves a liver for 15 hours and Eurocollins preserves a liver for six to 10 hours.

Dr. Byers Shaw at University Hospital transplanted the liver in just under 15 hours, according to Smith.

After the transplanted liver failed, doctors used a pig liver to keep Smith alive until another cadaver liver was obtained one week later, Humphrey said. Humphrey said that the coma and other health complications of the failed transplant cost Smith $1.2 million.

Attorneys for Colorado Organ Recovery (which merged with Mile High Transplant Bank in 1997 to become Donor Alliance) argued that no evidence proves that Eurocollins caused the transplant failure.

Eurocollins was widely used before development of the Wisconsin solution, and still is used in shipping some organs.

"EC is not battery acid; it's not toxic," said Mike Kinney, attorney for the OPO. "It's what used to save lives."