‘A tragic case’: an organ transplant patient dies after having lungs infected by Covid

Doctors in the United States say a Michigan woman died two months after receiving Covid-infected lungs during a double lung transplant.

The donor turned out to have harbored the virus that causes Covid-19, despite showing no signs of illness and initially testing negative.

Officials at the University of Michigan School of Medicine suggested it could be the first proven case of Covid-19 in the US in which the virus was transmitted through an organ transplant.

The virus was transmitted when the lungs of a woman, who died after suffering a severe brain injury in a car accident, were transplanted into a woman with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at Ann Arbor University Hospital.

One of the surgeons who manipulated the donor’s lungs also became ill and tested positive for Covid-19, but later recovered.

Three days after the operation, the recipient developed a fever before her blood pressure dropped and she found it difficult to breathe.

His condition worsened in the next few days before he developed septic shock and heart function problems before he passed away from multiple organ failure.

The incident appears to be isolated after being the only confirmed case among nearly 40,000 transplants in the US in 2020.

However, the unexpected death has since prompted calls for more extensive testing of lung transplant donors.

Michigan Medicine Infectious Disease Transplant Service Director Dr. Daniel Kaul said they would like to have samples taken from deep within the donor’s lungs, as well as nose and throat swabs.

“We absolutely would not have used the lungs if we had had a positive Covid test,” said Kaul, a co-author of a report on the case in the American Journal of Transplantation.

“TRAGIC CASE”

As the woman became increasingly ill, doctors suspected the source of the infection and re-examined the transplanted donor samples.

While a nose and throat swab from the patient was negative for Covid-19, doctors examined a sample of fluid from deep within the donor’s lungs.

The liquid test was positive.

Kaul called the incident “a tragic case.”

While the Michigan case marks the first confirmed incident in the United States of transmission via transplant, others are suspected.

Before this incident, it was unclear whether the virus could be transmitted through solid organ transplants, although it is well documented with other respiratory viruses.

Overall, viral transmissions from organ donors to recipients remain rare, occurring in less than 1 percent of transplant recipients, research shows.

While the isolated incident is concerned, United Network for Organ Sharing medical director Dr. David Klasen said that people should not be afraid of receiving transplants.

“The risks of rejecting transplants are catastrophic.

“I don’t think patients should be afraid of the transplant process.”