Healthcare: Organ Transplants & Donor History, a Sad Soldier’s Story
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A soldier bravely serving his country overseas in Iraq begins to notice he has a hard time breathing. He takes a trip to the medic where they tell him he has an incurable lung condition that will leave him unable to breathe. Pretty grim outlook until they say he will be fast tracked on a lung transplant waiting list and once he is paired with a donor he will be able to receive a transplant. He patiently waits the 2 years it takes for a pair of lungs to be matched and he is finally able to receive the transplant. All goes well with the procedure and as he sees it he is granted a new lease on life, after all the doctors told him he most probably should have died by then and now here he was with a new set of lungs able to breathe clearly again. Fast forward one year and this same Iraqi War Vet aforementioned is now dead. From Lung Cancer.
As it turns out the lungs he received in the transplant we’re donated from a chain smoker. In Fact, they we’re donated from a smoker who smoked up to 50 cigarettes a day according to tests performed on the lungs during the autopsy.
A tumor had soon developed in the lungs soon after the transplant and the tumor was accelerated due to the immuno-suppresive drugs he was taking to prevent his body from rejecting the new lungs.
Papworth Hospital, where the transplant was performed, issued a statement in regards to the soldiers death stating that “using donor lungs from smokers is not at all unusual,” in fact its quite common. They say they really have no other option but to use smokers lungs if not far more people would die while waiting on the wait list for lungs.
While clearly this is an extremely rare case, it does shed light on a very interesting topic of debate. Should donors be fully informed of the organs they are to receive and be granted access to the donors prior medical history, and how rigorously are donors organs screened?
The Official cause of death listed on the Autopsy reads: “Complications from Lung Transplant Surgery and Immuno-Suppresive drug treatment.”
