After making major changes following death of live donor, Mount Sinai liver transplant reopens.

After 6 months of closure following the death of a living liver donor, Mount Sinai Hospital in New York reopened in June after the New York St ate Health Department accepted the hospital's plan to improve care in its liver transplant program.

Under terms of the plan, first year residents will no longer work on the transplant service, 2 health care practitioners will be assigned to the transplant unit at all times, and all pages from the unit will have to be answered within 5 minutes, the New York Times reported.

In addition, Mount Sinai agreed to increase monitoring of liver transplant recipients following the surgery, mandated postoperative visits by the surgeon performing the transplant, and reducing the number of patients assigned to each registered nurse from 6 or 7 down to a maximum of 4.

Mike Hurewitz, 57, a reporter for The Times Union of Albany died 3 days after donating part of his liver to his brother Adam, 54, An investigation by the department of health attributed the death to poor aftercare following the transplant. (Transplant News, January 31, 2002) The family of Mike Hurewitz has sued the hospital.

The state's investigation found that at the time of his death, Mike Hurewitz was one of 34 post operative patients assigned to 1 inexperienced first-year resident. In addition, the report said Hurewitz began experiencing heart problems and nausea 24 hours before his death. An autopsy ultimately revealed he inhaled vomit caused by a bacterial stomach infection. (Transplant News, March 14, 2002)

State Health Commissioner Antonia Novello, MD, who ordered an aggressive investigation into Hurewitz' death, said at the time "The transplant technique was perfect. It was the aftercare that was sloppy. I call it a Space Odyssey operation and a Third World follow-up."