Sommers Schwartz attorneys Richard Groffsky and Richard Fox negotiated a $1,250,000 settlement for a 25-year-old man and his mother stemming from the unsuccessful transplant of the mother’s kidney to her son.

At a routine physical in April 2016, the plaintiff’s doctor informed him he had high blood pressure and his laboratory blood work was abnormal for renal failure. The physician instructed the patent to go to the emergency department for possible kidney failure. Ultimately the plaintiff was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and put on the transplant list. The plaintiff was informed that he would need dialysis if he did not get a transplant.

The patient’s mother volunteered to donate one of her kidneys to her son and was selected as the donor. During her workup, however, it was discovered that she had a kidney stone in her right kidney and that the kidney had two renal veins. This meant that if her right kidney were removed, she was at risk of developing kidney stones in her remaining left kidney. It also indicated that the mother would not have a viable right kidney if her left kidney were to fail. According to the medical malpractice complaint, neither the mother nor her son was informed of the higher risks.

The plaintiff was cleared for transplant in December 2016. In July 2017, the defendants harvested the mother’s right kidney and transplanted it into the plaintiff. Major complications developed due to the defendant surgeons’ negligence, and ten days later, the mother’s kidney was removed from her son.

Due to insurance coverage problems, the plaintiff could not be placed on another transplant list until June 2017, and he underwent a successful transplant in April 2019. Between the time the plaintiff’s mother’s kidney was removed in June 2017 and the subsequent transplant, the plaintiff had to undergo dialysis three times a week.