Georgetown University Hospital failed to realize that a woman who died while waiting for a liver transplant was in the hospital, according a lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court.
While Donna Roy was in the hospital in 2008, an employee from the Georgetown Transplant Institute called Roy’s home phone number to notify her of an available liver. The mistake was never realized and the liver was given to another patient. The 59 year-old woman later died from complications caused by non-alcoholic cirrhosis on Thanksgiving day.
“It’s just unreal. She had been seen by a dozen doctors,” Dorothy Roy, her sister, told WUSA9. “Everyone knew she was at Georgetown. How did this happen that they called her at home?”
Last month, Dorothy filed suit for $5,000,000 on behalf of her sister’s estate. She claims that hospital’s medical negligence led to her sister’s death.
“I want to know why Donna did not get that liver. What happened to the liver?” Dorothy said.
Although Marianne Worley, hospital spokesperson, declined to comment on the case, WUSA9 confirmed that the phone message left on Donna’s home answering machine originated from the Georgetown Transplant Insitute.
According to WUSA9, Roy plans to donate the money to Haiti if the court rules against MedStar Health, the healthcare organization that owns the hospital.
Video: WUSA9
