ADN

4 Get AIDS Virus From Organ Donor

CHICAGO — An organ donor infected four transplant patients with the AIDS virus in what a donor group says is the first such transmission in the U.S. in at least 13 years.

The transplants occurred in January at three Chicago hospitals. The patients infected with HIV and the virus for hepatitis C did not learn of their status until the last two weeks, according to medical officials.

Dr. Michael Millis, chief of the transplantation program at the University of Chicago Hospitals, said his staff was told of the problem on November 1, and brought in the two patients who had transplants there for testing the next morning.

"It was very surprising and devastating for them, I'll be honest, just as it would be for any of us," Millis said.

Initial tests on the donor for HIV, hepatitis and other conditions came back negative, most likely because the donor had acquired the infections in the last three weeks before death. Personal details about the donor were not released by medical official officials, who cited privacy laws.

Based on the negative test results, doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Rush University Medical Center and the University of Chicago Medical Center went ahead with the transplants. Officials did not say which organs were transplanted.

The right procedures were followed in testing the donor, said Alison Smith, vice president for operations at Gift of Hope.

Joel Newman, a spokesman for the United Network for Organ Sharing, said there has not been another known case of HIV being transmitted from a donor to a recipient since federal high-risk donor guidelines were adopted in 1994.

Those guidelines were made in response to a 1985 case, when the AIDS virus was still relatively new and few safeguards were in place to prevent transmission.

Newman said Tuesday that officials were checking to see if there were any other similar cases before 1994.

Since the 1985 case, in which AIDS killed three patients who'd received organs from a Virginia man, there have been more than 400,000 organ transplants in the U.S. without a reported case of transmission through organs.

Millis said he thinks the process can be improved but may never be completely failproof.

"The organ supply is extraordinarily safe, but this has demonstrated that it's not 100 percent safe and it is never going to be 100 percent safe, at least with technology we have today," Millis said.

Source: WRAL News

Thats horrible and just fucked up right there.

Oh I would be so fucking pissed. You went in for the transplant thinking that the doctors are going to save your life and instead you find out you're going to die a slow death. Sweet....

Well, with all the money they can get from a law suit, they can just get the shit that Magic is drinking...It's not a cure, but whatever works man...

Atty: Woman wasn't told donor was a risk

CHICAGO - A woman in her 30s who is one of the four organ transplant patients infected with HIV and hepatitis was not told that the infected donor was high risk, and had previously rejected another donor "because of his lifestyle," her attorney said.

Attorney Thomas Demetrio filed a petition Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of the woman, asking officials to keep a hospital and an organ procurement center from destroying or altering any records involving the donation.

"She's really a mess right now," Demetrio said of the Chicago-area woman. "She's still in shock."

The patient, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, received a kidney transplant at the University of Chicago Medical Center on Jan. 9, Demetrio said.

Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network in Elmhurst and the University of Chicago both knew the kidney donor was high-risk and did not inform the patient, Demetrio said.

University of Chicago spokesman John Easton responded in an e-mail: "We believe we follow guidelines, and of course with the patient's consent we will provide necessary records and documents, as is consistent with our open process."

Gift of Hope did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The woman had been told the donor was a healthy young man, her attorney said. But on Tuesday, hospital officials disclosed to the woman that he was actually high-risk, a 38-year-old gay man, Demetrio said. CDC guidelines say that gay men who are sexually active should not be used as organ donors unless the patient is in imminent danger of death.

The woman was told she had HIV and hepatitis on Nov. 1, he said.

"The (organ) procurement group knew, the hospital knew, but the most important person did not know," he said. "The people that dedicate their lives to these transplant surgeries, they're just great people, but they need to bring the patient into the mix and let them make an informed decision."

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines were violated twice, the attorney said. One violation was not informing the woman about the donor's status and then not testing her afterward for HIV until just recently, after HIV and hepatitis were found during tests on another patient who was being evaluated for a second transplant.

The woman had been "doing great" on dialysis and had been on the donor waiting list for over six years, Demetrio said. In fact, she had rejected a potential donor two years ago "because of his lifestyle," the attorney said.

The woman developed renal failure seven years ago but he did not know what caused it.

"The fact is the transplant took very well. She'd been bumping along" doing fine, "then she gets this phone call on Nov. 1."

She's been started on an HIV drug regimen "and unfortunately one of the side effects is it's not good for the kidneys," Demetrio said. She's not hospitalized.

Four patients got organs in January at three Chicago hospitals from a donor who died after a traumatic injury. The donor had engaged in high-risk behaviors, according to a screening questionnaire, but standard testing showed the donor did not have AIDS or hepatitis C.

Gift of Hope tested the organs and approved them for donation, telling the three hospitals that they came from a high-risk donor.

Several months later, when one of the patients was being evaluated, blood tests showed the patient had HIV and hepatitis C. The other three patients were notified and tested, showing they had both viruses.

The CDC says it's the first time ever that both viruses were transmitted simultaneously through an organ transplant. It's also the first known time since 1986 that HIV was transmitted through organ donation.

Source: Yahoo News

mistakes like those are just plain STUPID !!! :x

just made me wonder if all those responsible should also be infected with HIV ! :twisted:

oh man. i'd be makin' head roll. first fiscally. then literally. what a way to go out.

hotheat wrote: just made me wonder if all those responsible should also be infected with HIV ! :twisted:

i do get the same thought when i hear about shit like that happening. makes me wanna do a thorough background check. y'know karma & all that..