A Michigan woman contracted COVID-19 and died last fall after receiving a double lung transplant from a donor who was found to have the virus, according to a study.
The incident may be the first proven case in the US in which the coronavirus was transmitted through an organ transplant, researchers say in a report published by the American Journal of Transplantation.
“We absolutely wouldn’t have used the lungs if we had a positive COVID test,” says Dr. Daniel Kaul, director of the Transplant Infectious Disease Service at the University of Michigan Medical School and one of the study’s co-authors, told Kaiser Health News.
We’ve done all the screening that we normally do and can do, ”Kaul added.
The donor was an Upper Midwest woman who died after suffering severe brain damage in a car accident.
The recipient had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and was operated on at University Hospital in Ann Arbor.
Nose and throat samples collected from the donor and recipient had tested negative for COVID-19.
However, three days after surgery, the woman developed a high fever, low blood pressure, labored breathing and pneumonia, researchers said.
Doctors decided to test for COVID-19 after the woman went into septic shock. Lung fluids were also tested and the results were positive.
History obtained from [the donor’s] family revealed no travel history or recent fever, cough, headache or diarrhea, ”the study said.
“It is not known whether the donor has recently been exposed to persons known or suspected of being infected with SARS-CoV-2.”
Four days after surgery, a surgeon who handled the donor’s lungs also tested positive for the bug, but recovered later.
Meanwhile, the transplant recipient deteriorated rapidly. She died 61 days after surgery.
Kaul concluded that the Michigan case proves the need for more extensive organ sampling before transplant surgery, especially in regions where there are more cases of COVID-19.