LOS ANGELES, April 6 (UPI) -- A Los Angeles hospital says it is resuming its transplant program after fixing flaws in its program that allowed the wrong patient to receive a kidney.
The kidney was transplanted into the wrong patient at USC University Hospital earlier this year because of a problem with the system used to verify organs, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
An incorrect identification number on paperwork led to the mix-up, Dr. Cynthia Herrington, medical director of the USC Transplant Institute, said.
After a two-month suspension of transplants, the hospital has resumed the program with new safeguards in place, officials said.
The patient for whom the wrongly transplanted kidney was intended is still on the USC waiting list, Herrington said.
Medical experts said such mix-ups are rare but USC was not alone in being vulnerable to them.
"Most transplant centers use similar procedures," Dr. John Roberts, chief of transplant surgery at UC San Francisco, said. "This is going to lead transplant centers to reassess how they do things."
