Dr. Christoper Barry, a surgeon who formerly worked at University of California-San Diego Medical Center, will go to court next week after being sued by a patient who claims the doctor knowingly gave him a cystic kidney during a transplant operation, KGO-TV reports.
In 2008, San Diego man Austin Scalf had been on the kidney transplant wait list for a year and was excited to learn that a donor had been found, according to the station. When he arrived at UCSD Medical Center for the surgery, he signed forms indicating that he would not accept a kidney from donors with medical conditions and was assured by his transplant coordinator that he would be receiving one from a healthy young man.
Two weeks after the operation, however, doctors discovered that Scalf's kidney had a three-inch long malignant cyst and removed it. Scalf then learned that the organ donor was a 52-year-old diabetic with high blood pressure who had smoked cigarettes and marijuana for years, according to San Diego 6 News.
Scalf then filed a lawsuit against the doctor and the hospital, 10News.com reports. In a civil deposition, Dr. Barry said that he was aware that the kidney had a cyst but made a "judgment call" to continue with the operation because he didn't think the cyst was malignant.
"I had this sinking feeling I had made a horrible error," Barry is quoted as saying in the deposition.
Scalf said he tried to receive another kidney six months later but his body rejected it due to antibodies that had built up in his system after the last transplant. He is currently on dialysis.
According to 10News.com, Dr. Barry is now practicing medicine in New York and has not faced sanction by the California State Medical Board. His civil trial begins May 18.