These four stories are stand-alone, unrelated articles, but they are all culled from the hospital beat.
• “Donor’s Death Shatters Family, Stuns Surgeons” examines the life and death of a 56-year-old liver donor at Lahey Clinic, only the third fatality of a living liver donor in the US. It provides a behind-the-scenes narrative of Paul Hawk’s decision to donate part of his liver to his brother-in-law and the breakdown in the family after he died. The story finds that the potential impact on family relationships is rarely discussed during the informed consent process for living donors and that transplant centers are sometimes more focused on the health and well-being of recipients than donors. It also documents resistance in the industry to developing more stringent informed consent rules and medical evaluation procedures for living donors.
• “A Warning, A Delayed Repair, A Patient Dies” describes the state’s refusal to provide money to install safety windows in a hospital for the mentally-ill, despite warnings of the risk, leading to a patient jumping to his death. It found that the state did not approve funds for the safety glass until the day after the patient died.
• “Surgical Error at Tufts Prompts Widespread Changes” chronicles the missteps leading to a fatal medical error for a 74-year-old woman undergoing elective surgery, including the surgeon’s “cognitive bias,” which led him to misread the label on the operating room drug that caused her death. The story also uncovered limitations in Massachusetts’ efforts to reform the medical malpractice system.
• “Marathon Bombing Victim Builds on Her Recovery” describeds how a teenage victim in the bombing, who had not previously shared her story, fought to save her mangled leg, despite the skepticism of her doctors.”
