A lawsuit filed by the family of Ronald Bello of New York alleges that he died in suffering after being transplanted a ‘diseased’ heart by surgeons at Manhattan’s New York-Presbyterian Hospital. They claim that the surgeons at New York-Presbyterian have failed to show evidences that the donor heart was thoroughly checked for any flaws before transplantation. There are no available records of any crucial tests done on the heart before the surgery.

The lawyer for Bello’s family articulates that it’s disgraceful for a later autopsy to reveal that the harvested heart had vascular disease. The hospital implanted such a heart resulting in the recipient’s death. He accuses that the either the hospital authorities already knew of the flaw in the donor heart or they were too careless to carry out the necessary tests.

Ronald Bello, aged 49 at death, worked as a systems operation manager for Jet Blue airlines and had 3 children. He had a weak heart for several years and in March 2006 he was listed to undergo a heart transplant. Though he needed a heart replacement, he could have easily done for a few more years with the original one too, according to his family’s lawyer.

The donor was from Florida and the harvesting team of New York-Presbyterian hospital was normally supposed to have assessed his medical history and if found satisfying, then harvest the heart and bring it back to Presbyterian. However, another lawyer for Bello family says that there’s no evidence of the evaluation of medical history or any tests for satisfaction of the donor heart’s suitable condition.

The transplantation was done on Nov 26, 2006 and within a week, on Dec 2, Bello started experiencing extreme pain as his heart started bleeding internally resulting in his death. Though New York-Presbyterian claim they performed an angiogram on the donor, they are unable to show evidence supporting their statements.

Source:

FOX News