Elizabeth Aloisio had anticipated that the stem cell transfusion would help her leukemia heal. A wrongful death complaint filed on Tuesday in the New York State Supreme Court contends that instead, it gradually killed the Queens resident after she obtained stem cells from a "incompatible donor" as a result of a "labeling error."
In the end, the cells assaulted Aloisio's body, leading to her "unimaginably horrific death," according to the lawsuit that her brother John filed. It mentions the AKB Foundation, a German stem cell donor network, and a donation-collection subsidiary that collaborated with the National Marrow Donor Program to identify a suitable donor. Allegedly, AKB obtained bone stem cells from an Italian donor and sent the finished product to New York, all while earning over $30,000 in payment.
It was a January 16, 2019, transplant. Alosio, however, was not exhibiting "the expected signs of improvement," the lawsuit said, even after many weeks. AKB subsidiary that gathered and distributed the stem cells claimed, "to our great dismay," that the erroneous product was supplied weeks later, most likely as a result of "mixing up final products labels," according to the Daily Beast. This was stated by the head of quality control at the company. The offending employee lost his job. As for the "small mistake of one of our experienced coworkers," a member of AKB's board of directors contacted Aloisio to apologize and explain that the company had "taken all activities," including instituting a check of samples after labels were added, "to prevent such a mistake from happening ever again."
That does not lessen the fact that Aloisio's illness prevented her from receiving a second transplant due to a "completely preventable" error, as stated in the lawsuit. "From the date of transplant until her death, Ms. Aloisio suffered from worsening fevers, vomiting, dizziness, pain, diarrhea, infections, pneumonia, and a long list of other symptoms," the complaint states. According to the lawsuit, she had "a severe, painful, total-body case" of Graft Versus Host Disease, "which took over her body and destroyed her skin and internal organs," in addition to those consequences. On January 7, 2020, a year after the transplant, she passed away at the age of 63. Her brother, who is seeking undisclosed damages and a jury trial, told the Daily Beast that her last request was for her story to serve as a lesson for other people.
In the end, the cells assaulted Aloisio's body, leading to her "unimaginably horrific death," according to the lawsuit that her brother John filed. It mentions the AKB Foundation, a German stem cell donor network, and a donation-collection subsidiary that collaborated with the National Marrow Donor Program to identify a suitable donor. Allegedly, AKB obtained bone stem cells from an Italian donor and sent the finished product to New York, all while earning over $30,000 in payment.
It was a January 16, 2019, transplant. Alosio, however, was not exhibiting "the expected signs of improvement," the lawsuit said, even after many weeks. AKB subsidiary that gathered and distributed the stem cells claimed, "to our great dismay," that the erroneous product was supplied weeks later, most likely as a result of "mixing up final products labels," according to the Daily Beast. This was stated by the head of quality control at the company. The offending employee lost his job. As for the "small mistake of one of our experienced coworkers," a member of AKB's board of directors contacted Aloisio to apologize and explain that the company had "taken all activities," including instituting a check of samples after labels were added, "to prevent such a mistake from happening ever again."
That does not lessen the fact that Aloisio's illness prevented her from receiving a second transplant due to a "completely preventable" error, as stated in the lawsuit. "From the date of transplant until her death, Ms. Aloisio suffered from worsening fevers, vomiting, dizziness, pain, diarrhea, infections, pneumonia, and a long list of other symptoms," the complaint states. According to the lawsuit, she had "a severe, painful, total-body case" of Graft Versus Host Disease, "which took over her body and destroyed her skin and internal organs," in addition to those consequences. On January 7, 2020, a year after the transplant, she passed away at the age of 63. Her brother, who is seeking undisclosed damages and a jury trial, told the Daily Beast that her last request was for her story to serve as a lesson for other people.
