Hospital negligence ends with death

A jury has ordered a Chicago area hospital to pay $2.7 million to the family of a man who had a diseased heart implanted, a report said Wednesday.

Carl Longnecker, 58, of Woodstock, Ill., died three days after the June 2001 operation at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill.

On Monday, a jury found Loyola negligent for failing to tell its doctor at Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Ill., to examine the heart before sending it to Loyola.

The implanting doctor had already removed Longnecker's heart when he saw the donor organ was diseased and said he had to proceed with the operation.

The hospital, not the doctors, was found liable for the death and said it would appeal.

Longnecker's wife, Connie, said autopsy results revealed the mistake, UPI reports.

"Sometimes, you can't undo a wrong," she said. "I don't think anybody won. What I want, I can't have back."

V.Y.