According to a study, a Michigan woman contracted COVID-19 and died after undergoing a double lung transplant from a donor.
Researchers say the incident may be the first proven case in the US in which coronovirus was sent via organ transplant, researchers said in a report Published by the American Journal of Transplantation.
Dr., director of the Transplant Infectious Disease Service at Michigan Medical School and one of the study’s co-authors. Daniel Caul said, “If we had a positive COVID test, we wouldn’t use the lungs.” Told Kaiser Health News.
Kaul said that we did all the screenings that we usually do and are able to do.
The donor was a woman from the upper Midwest who died after suffering a serious brain injury in a car accident.
The recipient had chronic obstructive lung disease and was operated on at the University Hospital in Ann Arbor.
Nose and throat samples collected from donor and recipient tested negative for COVID-19.
However, three days after the surgery, the woman developed a high fever, low blood pressure, heavy breathing and lung infection, according to researchers.
The doctors decided to test COVID-19 after the woman went into septic shock. Fluids taken from the lungs were also tested and the results were positive.
“Received from history [the donor’s] The family says there is no history of travel or recent fever, cough, headache or diarrhea.
“It is unknown if the donor is at risk of having recently known individuals or someone at risk who has been infected with SARS-CoV-2.”
Four days after the operation, a surgeon, who handled the donor’s lungs, tested positive for the bug, but later recovered.
Meanwhile, the transplant recipient quickly deteriorated. He died 61 days after surgery.
Kaul concluded that the Michigan case proves that more extensive samples of organs need to be taken before transplant surgery, especially in areas where there are more cases of COVID-19.
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