Hosp pays in kidney tragedy
MONTEFIORE MEDICAL Center will pay several million dollars to the grieving family of a beloved Bronx mom who died in the OR while trying to donate a kidney to her brother.
Although the exact terms of Tuesday’s out-of-court settlement were confidential, wrongful-death experts familiar with such cases said the hospital’s payout would be in the ballpark of $7 million to $10 million.
Yolanda Medina, 41, who left behind three little girls — ages 3, 8 and 11 — bled to death on May 23 when transplant surgeons accidentally cut her aorta during the organ-harvesting operation. An unknowing Roberto Medina lay in an adjacent operating room awaiting his sister’s generous gift of life.
“I am still grieving for my sister and waiting for a donor,” Medina, 39, told the Daily News when reached for comment moments after the settlement was signed.
“We are very pleased with Judge McKeon and the attorneys and hospital for using the fast track to resolve this, but no money in the world can bring our sister back.”
Days after the tragedy, Montefiore President Steven Safyer made the unusual request to Bronx Administrative Judge Douglas McKeon to expedite a settlement before a lawsuit was even filed.
The hospital was eager to put the case and the headlines behind it, hoping to salvage Montefiore’s lucrative live-donor kidney transplant program. The program was shut down after Yolanda Medina’s shocking death. A state Health Department probe is ongoing.
Under a novel grant from the federal government, McKeon directed the negotiators to get all the parties together and resolve a case that would otherwise drag on for years and cost millions of dollars to try. Due to the loss of parental guidance, Yolanda Medina’s three girls will get an estimated $2 million each to secure their futures. Montefiore is also paying Roberto Medina, a married father of four, six figures.