Man Given Wrong Heart Dies After Second Transplant
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ST. LOUIS — A man who needed a second heart transplant after receiving the wrong heart the first time has died, a hospital spokesman said today.
Robert Ottinger, 47, of Bonne Terre, died Sunday at Barnes Hospital.
He underwent a second transplant at Barnes on April 4 after doctors learned, while completing a first transplant March 21, that the donor heart had been mismatched for blood type at General Hospital of Wichita Falls, Tex.
A laboratory technician at General Hospital was fired after the mistake. Earlier this month, Ottinger filed a $20-million lawsuit against the Texas hospital, claiming that it had “carelessly and negligently provided a B-Type blood heart but, in fact, represented that said heart was an A-Type blood heart.”
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