Illinois hospital accused of performing unsafe transplants for profits

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A 2023 lawsuit made public in September alleges that a hospital in Maywood, Ill., performed organ transplants on patients ineligible for such procedures to maximize Medicare revenue. 

The plaintiff, Patrek Chase, became executive director of Loyola University Medical Center’s solid organ transplant programs and outpatient dialysis clinic in October 2020, according to a lawsuit filed in Texas. The lawsuit focuses on alleged fraud in organ transplantation and named Loyola University Medical Center, two Texas hospitals and five organ procurement organizations as defendants. 

Loyola University Medical Center regularly provided organ transplants to unfit patients, such as liver donations to people with alcoholism, and double billed Medicare, according to Mr. Chase’s lawsuit. He was asked to resign in May 2022 after raising concerns about organ transplant failures, deaths, infections and return to operation room rates, the lawsuit alleges. 

The hospital is part of Loyola Medicine, a three-hospital system that is a member of Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health. Loyola Medicine told Becker’s it does not comment on pending litigation. 

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