Narrowly averting fatal medical error

KFF Health News published a scary article about a gunshot victim almost losing his life to organ harvesting. Fortunately, the patient's neurosurgeon intervened in time, and the patient was able to recover. The article reports that an investigation reports that this was not an isolated case, but that over a four-year period, "providers had planned to harvest the organs of 73 patients despite signs of neurological activity."

Clearly, something went wrong in this case, although the organization responsible for organ procurement in that region appears to deny any wrongdoing. At the very least, it seems that some provider misjudged the patient's health. This particular case was caught, but it raises the larger question about how frequently providers err in their medical judgments, not just in organ transplantation, but in overall treatment.