A lung transplant procedure last fall in Michigan led to the death of the patient and the illness of a surgeon involved in COVID-19, after both the donor and the recipient initially gave negative results. Doctors say this is the first documented case of a transplant recipient contracting the virus from a donor.
The lung donor was a woman from the upper middle west, according to doctors, and suffered a severe brain injury in a car accident in November. She quickly advanced to “brain death,” he said the report recently published and tested for COVID-19 before its organs were donated.
Her family said she showed no signs of COVID-19 symptoms in the days before the accident and had no travel history.
“We would not have used our lungs at all if we had had a positive Covid test,” said Dr. Daniel Kaul, who co-authored the report in American Journal of Transplantation detailing the case, and the director of the infectious disease service with transplant Mighigan Mediciden told NBC News.
The recipient had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and was tested for COVID-19 before transplantation at Ann Arbor University Hospital.
“All the screenings we do normally and we’re able to do, we’ve done,” Kaul said.
Three days after the procedure, the recipient developed a fever, lowered his blood pressure and found it difficult to breathe. Images of her new lungs showed signs of infection.
Tested samples from her new lungs tested positive for COVID-19.
Four days after the procedure, the surgeon who manipulated the donor’s lungs tested positive for COVID-19.
Looking for answers, the doctors returned to the samples taken from the donor. A test performed 48 hours after lung procurement was negative for COVID-19. However, they were able to test a sample taken from the depths of the donor’s lungs. The sample returned positive.
Genetic tests showed that the surgeon and the recipient were infected by the donor.
The condition of the recipient of the transplant worsened and, 61 days after the lung transplant procedure, he died.
The surgeon recovered.
While doctors involved in the study say this is the first confirmed case of COVID-19 transmission from an organ transplant, other cases have been suspected.
CDC recently they analyzed eight incidents since the beginning of the pandemic, but determined that the most likely source of infection was exposure in the community or in health care.
The doctors who wrote the report, from the University of Michigan, call for caution and more tests during transplants.
“Transplant centers and organ procurement organizations should perform SARS-CoV-2 testing of lower respiratory tract specimens from potential lung donors and consider improved personal protective equipment for health workers involved in the procurement and lung transplantation “, the authors of the report state.
They also noted that both the donor and the recipient tested negative to COVID-19, following the accepted protocol, health workers involved in the procedure were not required to wear N95 masks and eye protection as part of the procedure. and EIP.
The study encourages transplant centers to consider the benefits of N95 masks and eye protection during transplantation, even with negative COVID-19 tests.
No other donor organs were used.