In 2006, 43-year-old Tony Grier underwent a lung transplant at the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), but received a pair of diseased lungs which may have caused his death six months later. Now, HUP faces a medical malpractice lawsuit from his mother.

Grier had pulmonary sarcoidosis, a rare disease that thickens lung tissue to the point at which it can no longer transmit oxygen into the bloodstream. He believed he was receiving a lung transplant from a healthy 18-year-old, but instead received the cancerous lungs of a 31-year-old smoker.

One month later, he began to complain of pain and coughing. His doctors examined the lungs, found a spot, and prescribed antibiotics, not knowing it was cancerous. By the time the tumor was recognized, it was untreatable. He died six months after the transplant.

His mother, Emma Grier, has now filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against HUP, four physicians and Gift of Life, the organ-donor program that allocated the lungs to Grier. Each defendant is being sued for $750,000 on seven counts, including medical malpractice, wrongful death and common law fraud.

According to the lawsuit, HUP doctors intentionally misrepresented the identity of his lung donor. No date has yet been set for the hearing.

Source: Julia Harte, “Lawsuit: tumorous lungs put in patient,” Daily Pennsylvanian, February 8, 2008.