Michigan Organ Recipient Dies After Getting COVID-19 Infected Lungs: Report

An organ recipient from Michigan reportedly died last fall after receiving a lung that was infected with COVID-19 from a donor. It may be the first proven case of COVID-19 transmission through an organ transplant.

The report, published in the American Journal of Transplantation, said the recipient's health began declining three days after the double lung transplant. She experienced symptoms such as a fever, labored breathing and a lung infection.

Although the RT-PCR testing for COVID-19 was "non-reactive," fluid samples from her new lungs came back positive for COVID-19. What's more, the thoracic surgeon who performed the surgery also tested positive for COVID-19 four days after the procedure.

The lungs came from a donor who had died from a severe brain injury following an accident, Kaiser Health News (KHN) reported. Doctors had tested the donor's nose and throat samples for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and the test came out negative.

According to the donor's family, she neither presented any symptoms of COVID-19 nor had a known history of being exposed to someone who had tested positive for it. But when doctors tested the fluid samples that were saved from the donor's lungs during procurement, the results came back positive for the virus. Further analysis revealed that it was likely the donated lungs that had infected the surgeon and the recipient.

Further Testing Of Lung Donations

Calling it a "tragic" case, study co-author Dr. Daniel Kaul of Michigan Medicine's Transplant Infectious Disease Service noted that they did all the usual screenings prior to the transplant.

"We would absolutely not have used the lungs if we'd had a positive Covid test," Dr. Kaul said as per KHN. "All the screening that we normally do and are able to do, we did."

The authors of the report are now calling for more thorough testing of lung donors for COVID-19.

"Transplant centers and organ procurement organizations should perform SARS‐CoV‐2 testing of lower respiratory tract specimens from potential lung donors, and consider enhanced personal protective equipment for health care workers involved in lung procurement and transplantation," the authors wrote.

Viral Transmission From Transplants Are Rare

The case provides evidence of COVID-19 transmission via organ transplants and the need for more thorough COVID-19 testing for such procedures.

Still, such viral transmission via transplants is considered to be very rare. What's more, it's still unclear if other organs such as the heart and kidneys also pose a risk of transmitting the virus as well.

Dr. David Klassen of the United Network for Organ Sharing told KHN that people still shouldn't be afraid of the process.

According to Health Resources & Services Administration statistics, over 109,000 men, women and children are still on the waiting list for a transplant as of September 2020. Unfortunately, each day, about 17 die without getting the transplant they need.