Loyola University Medical Center sued over organ transplants

Loyola University Medical Center knowingly performed organ transplants on unsuitable patients to boost Medicare billing, leading to harm and death, according to a former hospital official whose recently unsealed federal lawsuit alleges a larger scheme “to extract federal and state funds from a system meant to support organ donation and save lives.”

Patrek Chase, former executive director for Loyola’s Solid Organ Transplant Programs and Outpatient Dialysis Clinic, alleges in the lawsuit that Loyola had area hospitals transfer “their sickest patients” for transplants.

“Loyola would then list these patients on the organ donor list as status 1A, meaning the patient was unlikely to live more than a few days without a transplant,” the lawsuit said. “This put the patient at the top of the donat