A Michigan woman contracted COVID-19 and died last fall, two months after a double lung transplant, doctors said.
The researchers suggested in a study that the woman, who has not been identified, is the first proven case of transmission of an organ transplant in the United States, raising questions about appropriate COVID tests for potential donors.
The researchers who conducted the study noted that one of the surgeons who manipulated the donor’s lungs was also infected, proving ‘the donor’s origin from the recipient and the healthcare professional’s infection.
A surgeon became ill and tested positive for COVID-19 four days after delivering the donor’s lungs, but he recovered, according to the study – which was published in the American Journal of Transplantation.
A Michigan woman contracted COVID-19 and died last fall, two months after a double lung transplant at Ann Arbor University Hospital, pictured
Dr. Daniel Richard Kaul, pictured, suggested in a study that healthcare professionals should perform COVID tests on samples taken from the depths of donor lungs
The case, being the only confirmed transmission among nearly 40,000 transplants in 2020, appears to be an isolated occurrence, according to Kaiser Health News.
The donated lungs came from an Upper Midwest woman who died after suffering a severe brain injury in a car accident.
The donor’s lungs were then transplanted to a woman with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD, at Ann Arbor University Hospital.
Dr. Daniel Richard Kaul, director of the University of Michigan School of Medicine’s Infectious Diseases Transplant Service, said nose and throat samples routinely collected from organ donors and recipients had negative results for COVID-19.
“We would not have used the lungs at all if we had a positive COVID test,” Kaul told Kaiser Helath News.
He added: ‘All the projections that we normally do and are able to do, we did.’
On the third day after the transplant, the woman “developed worsening fever, hypotension and the need for ventilation” and imaging tests showed a lung infection, according to the study.
When the patient started experiencing septic shock, doctors decided to send samples of her lungs for coronavirus tests – which were positive.
The doctors returned to the nose and throat samples from the transplant donor, which had tested negative for COVID-19.
‘Family history did not reveal travel history or any recent fever, cough, headache or diarrhea,’ says the study.
‘It is not known whether the donor has had any recent exposure to people known or suspected of being infected with SARS-CoV-2.’
The doctors then tested a sample of fluid taken from the depths of the donated lungs before being implanted, which later tested positive for the virus.
The researchers said the genetic screening revealed that “both the transplant recipient and the surgeon acquired SARS-CoV-2 from the donor’s lungs.”
The woman’s health quickly deteriorated and she was not considered a candidate for a transplant. Doctors said the support was withdrawn and she died 61 days after the transplant.
The study concluded that infection derived from a COVID-19 donor ‘has significant implications for the recipient’s health,’ but also for healthcare professionals who may be exposed before the recipient’s diagnosis.
The Organ Transplant and Acquisition Network, which oversees transplants, does not require that organ donors have been tested for COVID-19, according to Kaiser Health News.
“Transplant centers and organ procurement organizations should consider the possibility of performing the SARS-CoV-2 test on samples from the lower respiratory tract of potential lung donors and consider improved personal protective equipment for health professionals involved in the obtaining and transplanting lungs, ”according to the study.