University Toledo Medical Center performs first kidney transplant after mistake

TOLEDO, Ohio - An Ohio hospital where a nurse accidentally threw out a viable kidney last summer has resumed its kidney transplant program.

The University Toledo Medical Center had voluntarily suspended the transplant program after the Aug. 10 incident. After an investigation and policy changes, the hospital announced last month it was ready to resume the living-donor program.

Hospital spokesman Jon Strunk told The (Toledo) Blade that the first surgery took place Thursday. He declined to provide patient information.

A report by a surgeon hired by the hospital to review its transplant program called it "baffling" that the nurse would accidentally put the viable kidney with medical waste. But he found no problems with the systems that would have indicated the hospital was at risk for such a mistake.