A Hennepin County jury recently found the University of Minnesota Physicians and Dr. Ty Dunn negligent in accepting a pancreas for transplantation where the cause of the donor’s death was unclear. The case was tried by Kathleen Loucks of Lommen Abdo and Edward Milstein of Dankner, Milstein & Ruffo for the plaintiff. The jury awarded the plaintiff heirs and next of kin over a million dollars in compensation. Jodie Shierts, the woman who died as a result of the organ transplant in 2007, was a 36 year-old single mother of a young autistic boy. After eight long years in litigation, the jury award provided the family with some justice for their loss.
See the previous appellate ruling in this case and the article that appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.