(SALT LAKE TRIBUNE) — A Park City man who was refused a lung transplant at the University of Utah after doctors found a trace of marijuana in his system died Saturday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Riley Hancey and his family celebrated his 20th birthday last week with cake and balloons, weeks after he had undergone a double lung transplant after a severe bout of pneumonia last Thanksgiving.
He was surrounded by his father, mother and two aunts about 4 p.m. Saturday when he died from complications of the double lung transplant, his father Mark Hancey said.
“This death is unbelievable,” Mark Hancey said. “If you could talk about angels, [the UPenn] medical staff they are a group of angels. From the physicians down, I just couldn’t believe it.”