The surgery-suspense genre has been thriving lately, as Jessica Alba will attest. Just look at her two most recent films — Awake and The Eye. The first has something to do with a heart transplant murder scheme. The second is an Asian horror remake about the spooky history of a pair of donated eyes.

These films are popular because they exploit the natural fear of going under the knife. But sometimes fact is freakier than fiction. As the DP reports, the details of a developing lawsuit against the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania rival anything Hollywood could come up with.

Apparently, HUP doctors performed a surgery giving Tony Grier cancerous replacement lungs, and he didn’t receive treatment until he was terminally ill. It’s still unclear where to lay all the blame — HUP, which performed the surgery, Lancaster General Hospital, which donated the lungs, or not-for-profit donor program Gift of Life, which orchestrated the whole SNAFU.

I can deal with the nightmare plots of shitty Jessica Alba movies, but not with the real-life blunders of my local hospital. If these allegations prove true, I hope that every doctor involved is banned from the profession. I freaked out getting my wisdom teeth removed. I don’t need the added fear of being given tumorous organs that kill me.

Tags: Now I don't know what to think of the Anne Ryan case...

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