Health Issue: Kidney Transfer From Women

After Kidney Graft, Man Gets

Woman's cancer

The man decided to keep the kidney as his doctor said there was only a slim chance he could be sickened by uterine cancer, which the donor had

New York: The scenario was unique, as far as doctors could tell: A man had received a transplanted kidney from a woman who had uterine cancer and didn't know it.

          Vincent Liew decided to keep the kidney after his transplant surgeon concluded there was only a slim chance he could be sickened by the feminine cancer - advice that gambled with Liew's life and lost, a lawyer for his widow told jurors on Thursday in what experts say may be the only known case of uterine cancer being transmitted by transplant.

         Jurors began deliberating the case against NYU Langone Medical Center on Thursday. Liew's widow, Kimberly, is seeking more than $3 million in damages in her lawsuit against the hospital.

         Langone should be held responsible "for taking a huge risk with Vincent Liew's life" by not urging him to have the kidney removed at once, Daniel Buttafuoco said during closing arguments in the medical-malpractice case, which is refreshing longstanding questions about organ transplant risks and rewards.

        NYU Langone Medical Center says it advised Liew of the risk, honored his choice and aggressively monitored the kidney for signs of cancer. Though tests found nothing, Liew suffered back pain and ultimately had the kidney removed about six months after the 2002 transplant. He died about three weeks later of cancer that came from his donor, his autopsy said, without specifying the type

of cancer, He was 37.

       Liew, a diabetic since his teens was on dialysis, had been awaiting a kidney for about five years when he got the transplant February 25, 2002.

       The donor, Sandy Cabrera, 50, had died of a stroke about a day earlier in Newburgh, New York. An autopsy in the days after her death found that she had uterine cancer that had begun to spread to her lungs.