Hospital ships organs to wrong countries

As a result of a labeling mistake, a liver that was supposed to be sent to Copenhagen ended up in Helsinki, while a kidney destined for Helsinki was instead shipped to Copenhagen.

In a complaint filed with Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), the blunder was attributed to an overworked transplant coordinator.

“I’ve been working for 24 hours in a row and despite telling a colleague what I do with packaging and labeling, I managed to get the address labels confused,” the transplant coordinator wrote in the complaint.

The hospital has since altered its procedures, developing an organ donation checklist and requiring that two people check labels before donor organs are sent.

The error by Sahlgrenska was discovered by the hospitals in Copenhagen and Helsinki, and the organs were eventually sent to the correct destinations.

In commenting on the incident with the Siren news agency, a representative from Sahlgrenska explained that while the mistake delayed the planned transplant operations for several hours, the patients didn’t suffer any harm or injuries.

TT/The Local/dl

Follow The Local on Twitter