Sept. 26, 2012

 

View full sizePatrick McMahon contends in a law suit that he was fired by the New York Organ Donor Network after complaining about the network's "wrongful and illegal practices."

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The New York Organ Donor Network pressured hospitals to declare patients brain dead to facilitate organ harvesting, including one instance where a patient showed a "clear sign" of brain activity during transplant surgery at Richmond University Medical Center, a lawsuit charges.

RUMC is not a named defendant in the retaliatory-firing litigation brought by Patrick McMahon against New York Organ Donor Network.

McMahon, 50, an Air Force combat veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and a nurse practitioner, contends he was sacked in November after complaining about the network's "wrongful and illegal practices."

"It's atrocious what's going on," McMahon said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "These individuals that aren't brain dead can't speak for themselves. The family members aren't experts. I'm trying to stop [the network] from doing this."

McMahon, who worked four months as a transplant coordinator, alleged his non-profit former employer solicited brain-death declarations from hospital staffers even when patients showed signs of life. Network employees also hounded patients' grieving kin for organ-removal authorization before their loved ones were officially deemed brain dead, he alleges.

Patients must be declared brain dead by a hospital, and families must sign a consent form before organs can be harvested.

A Nov. 13 incident last year at RUMC, in West Brighton, was among four cited by McMahon in his lawsuit as episodes of the network's wrongful conduct.

According to court papers, McMahon grew concerned when he saw the patient being administered a muscle paralyzer during a full-organ harvest. The anesthesiologist told him the surgeon had ordered the drug because the female patient was "moving and jerking" during the initial surgical incision on her chest.

The patient's reaction was a "clear sign" she wasn't brain dead at that time, court papers contend. It further showed that a colleague had improperly obtained consent from the patient's family.

Because of McMahon's resistance, a network co-worker implied to the anesthesiologist that McMahon was "an untrained troublemaker with a history of raising frivolous issues and questions," said court documents.

"Despite these facts, over (McMahon's) vehement objections, NYODN continued to process the female patient and allowed the life-ending surgery to go forward," McMahon's court papers contend. "NYODN's actions are the direct cause for the female patient's premature death."

Court documents don't identify the patient.

A RUMC spokeswoman declined comment on Wednesday.

McMahon's suit maintains that to secure the required consent, the network allegedly hired sales and marketing representatives who "coach[ed]" transplant coordinators to lean on patients' emotionally vulnerable families. And it instituted a quota system and fired workers who failed to reach it, contend court papers.

It cites four incidents, including the one at RUMC.

The litigation, filed in Manhattan state Supreme Court, seeks unspecified monetary damages. McMahon, an Orange County resident, is being represented by the Law Office of Borrelli & Associates of Great Neck, L.I.

Julia E. Rivera, a network spokeswoman, said Wednesday her employer has not been served with the legal papers. But she vehemently denied McMahon's accusations.

"The allegations made by a former employee are baseless and an affront to the work that the New York Organ Donor Network is doing in the New York City area to save and improve the lives of New Yorkers through organ donation and transplantation," she said in a statement. "The New York Organ Donor Network plays absolutely no role in the declaration of brain death. We will rigorously defend the life-saving work our organization is doing on a daily basis, and has done for 35 years."

The three other incidents McMahon mentions occurred between September and October of last year.

In the first, at Nassau University Medical Center, network employees allegedly harassed a doctor to declare a 19-year-old patient brain dead even after he had refused to do so. At one point, during a network conference call, its director Michael Goldstein barked, "[T]his kid is dead. You got that? Get the [note] signed off," court papers allege.

The "note" is the brain-death declaration.

In a subsequent episode at St. Barnabas Medical Center in the Bronx, network employees and the neurologist disregarded tests, which McMahon conducted, showing signs of brain activity in a female patient, he alleges. McMahon's requests for further examination were rebuffed.

In another episode at Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn, network employees processed a patient's paperwork even after he responded to pain-stimuli tests performed by McMahon and a co-worker, the lawsuit contends.

McMahon was fired Nov. 15 -- two days after the RUMC incident and about 10 days after voicing his concerns to Helen Irving, the network's president and CEO, about its "illegal conduct," said court papers.

The basis for his termination, he was told, was his failure to properly satisfy job requirements and inefficiency as a transplant coordinator, court documents state.

"It's all ridiculous," said McMahon. "It's totally false."

Frank Donnelly is a news reporter for the Advance. He may be reached at fdonnelly@siadvance.com.

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