73-year-old Colorado woman who said a hospital removed her healthy kidneys dies

Linda Woolley dies barely nine months after she had two of her kidneys removed by the doctors in the University of Colorado Hospital after being wrongly diagnosed with kidney cancer; only for them to discover that there was no evidence of carcinoma or mass lesion.

Linda’s doctors feared that she had kidney cancer, although a pathology test carried out in March 2018 showed no proof of malignancy and the results were consistent with a benign process. Even with that, the doctors went on to have her kidneys removed two months later.

Now, a routine biopsy carried out after the surgery proved that there was "no evidence of carcinoma" and "no mass lesion identified"– meaning no cancer.

Of course, Linda had to be going for dialysis three times every week, for sessions that would last for 4 hours, each time. Knowing fully well that she couldn't function well with no kidneys, even with the dialysis, Linda needed to get at least one new kidney, and this, she tried to do.

The grandmother was waiting to get on the national transplant waiting list until death took her away on February 1st; even though the average expected time in the United States is seven years.

Her story got national attention, and she even got a couple of organ donors, but they, unfortunately, did not match her blood type. This setback didn't stop her from encouraging people to keep donating.

Woodley’s daughter as well is part of those who were willing to give a kidney. But now, her family says Woolley suffered cardiac arrest, as a result of not having an organ. The 73-year-old was due to have a stress test next week, that is, one of the final steps before she could get on the nation's kidney transplant waiting list if she were alive.

The Hospital was already facing a medical malpractice lawsuit, which may now be a case of wrongful death suit for Linda. Before she died, the 73-year-old hired Jim Leventhal, an attorney of the Leventhal and Puga law firm to represent her in any possible lawsuit.

Who would have thought that she wouldn't be alive to see it through? The University of Colorado Hospital hasn't been out to defend or deny any claims of the incident outrightly. And, in more recent news, A GoFundMe account has been set up in Woolley's name. We know doctors are human too, and as we know, no one is above mistakes. Hopefully such a case doesn't happen again.