Bone Marrow Transplant Malpractice Results in Wrongful Death Lawsuit by Family of Donor

According to allegations raised in a medical malpractice lawsuit recently filed against a New Jersey hospital, negligence during a bone marrow transplant procedure resulted in the death of a 44 year old man, who was a donor matched to a French teenager.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Sheronda Braker, the fiancée of Westfield High School Principal Derrick Nelson, who died in April, following a procedure at Hackensack University Medical Center.

According to a NBC News report, Nelson was donating bone marrow in February 2019, after he was matched to the teenager through the Be The Match bone marrow registry network.

The lawsuit alleges that hospital staff failed to adequately monitor Nelson’s oxygen levels and treat them when they dropped too low. As a result, he went into a coma and died several weeks later.

In addition to being a principal, Nelson was an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and had been a member of the reserve for 20 years. He also had a five-year-old daughter with Braker, and the couple planned to get married on June 29.

The lawsuit claims Nelson suffered from a number of health issues, which complicated bone marrow donations, including that sleep apnea, which meant he could not undergo general anesthesia. Despite that, he was placed under a local anesthetic during the procedure, but the lawsuit claims hospital staff kept giving Nelson anesthesia when his oxygen levels dropped, and failed to give him additional oxygen.