Bernard Burks, a frustrated kidney patient in Sacramento who was registered with Kaiser Permanente, has declaired, “I need a kidney, I need help and I can’t wait any longer.” Burks has every right to be frustrated. Due to his four year delay in receiving a kidney, there is an increased chance that his body has developed to the point where it will reject the new kidney, having adapted to a system where his body struggles on without the kidney.
Burks was put on a list of patients needing a kidney transplant at UC Davis in 2002. In November of 2004, he was notified that he was being transferred from UC Davis to Kaiser’s newly developed kidney transplant program. California attorneys have stated that “this case fits the mold for a huge punitive damage award because so much harm has been done to all these patients waiting for life saving treatment.”
In his complaint, Burks is seeking an award of punitive damages from Kaiser as punishment for their corporate policies which have not only hurt him personally, but have affected hundreds of other Kaiser Permanente patients waiting for a kidney transplant.
