A hospital is ending its liver transplant program after officials acknowledged in that doctors broke national standards by performing a transplant operation on a man who was not among the most needy patients. The patient in question was a Saudi Arabian citizen who was number-52 on the transplant list. Another patient, who was first on the list, died waiting for a donation.

St. Vincent Medical Center president and chief executive Gus Valdespino says continuing investigations into the 2003 transplant, the obstacles of salvaging the program ,and competitive pressures led to the decision t terminate the program.

An embarrassed Valdespino says the federal government dealt the program a potentially crippling blow by withdrawing its credentials, making it ineligible to receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements for liver transplants.

He says, "The resources, the energy, the attention that would need to be devoted to restoring the program, we thought it would be detrimental and would take us away from continuing to focus on the core programs here."

Seventy-five other patients on St. Vincent's liver transplant waiting list will be shifted to lists maintained by other area hospitals.

St. Vincent terminated its contracts with the two surgeons who led the liver transplant program. A lawyer for the former program director is not commenting. An attorney for the former assistant director, says her client did nothing wrong.