When the University Hospital center opened in 1997, it had a record of success. Today, the program's fatality rate is among the worst in the country, The Los Angeles Times said Friday.
In a span of about 30 months, 38 of 164 patients died within a year of their transplants, about twice the expected number, according to the data.
Investigators cite bad patient selection, poor organ quality, mishandled surgeries or follow-up care as possible causes. Hospital officials said the program selects high-risk patients to offer them "a chance at life despite the risks of lowering our survival statistics," officials said to the newspaper.
That philosophy may be too aggressive, said one observer.
"They're pushing it as hard as they can and having the results that you'd expect to see," David Mulligan, transplant surgery chairman at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix and a member of a national oversight group, told the Times.
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