http://www.yourhealth.com.sg/content/us-nurse-flushes-kidney-down-sink
The organ, which had been donated by the recipient's brother, was lost and the transplant had to be cancelled after the mix-up at the University of Toledo Medical Center in the US state of Ohio last month.
The nurse claimed she was out of the room on a break when the surgeon told the staff that he had placed the kidney in a bag of chilled, protective slush.
Believing the bag contained waste, the nurse took it out of the operating room and flushed the contents down the chute of a dirty utility sink, AP reported.
Hospital administrative staff members interviewed have not determined how the nurse took the 59-litre bag of slush, meant to extend the kidney's viability, past several members of the medical staff without them noticing a problem, the report said.
CMS will authorise a full review of the conditions of participation for the hospital.
If it is found to be out of compliance, it could be terminated from the Medicare programme, a CMS spokesman said in an e-mail.
Hospital officials apologised for the incident and hired a Texas surgeon to evaluate its transplant procedures, but they have not released the results of that evaluation.
The incident has also led to a voluntary and temporary suspension of the hospital's living-donor kidney transplant programme.
Two nurses were suspended - and one was later fired and the other resigned - and another surgeon was stripped of his title as director of some surgical services.
A surgical services administrator was put on paid leave, but has resumed work.
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