Michigan Woman Dies After Receiving COVID-Infected Lungs for Transplant

Michigan woman contracted Covid-19 and died two months after receiving a double lung transplant. 

What We Know:

• The unnamed woman from Michigan tested negative and showed no symptoms of Covid-19 before her surgery. The woman contracted Covid from the infected lungs of a woman who was declared brain dead after a car accident. After receiving her new set of lungs, she had concerning symptoms of Covid, such as difficulty breathing, a high fever, and her blood pressure fell. 
• The doctors realized that the virus took a primarily respiratory route because signs showed lung infection, and when her symptoms got worse, she went into septic shock and had heart function problems. Doctors tested her for Covid-19 and the samples from her new lungs came back positive, which led doctors back to retrieve even more specimens from the transplant donor.
• The test showed that a swab from the transplant donor’s nose and throat retrieved 48 hours later came back negative. The donor’s family said she had no recent travel history or been around anybody with Covid-19 and was not displaying any signs of Covid. It was not until the doctors received a specimen of fluid from the donor’s throat, that they received a positive Covid-19 result. Four days later, the surgeon fell ill after the surgery and tested positive for Covid.
• The test shows that the recipient and surgeon were both infected by the donor, the surgeon later recovered. It’s the only confirmed case out of almost 40,000 transplants in 2020, according to health.com. Now, medical professionals in the transporting department must take extra precautionary measures to avoid the risk of bidirectional viral transmission between patient and surgeon, such as wearing an N95 mask and eye protection during surgeries, even in instances where donors tested negative. 

Before donors donate organs, they must take a Covid test, get checked for possible symptoms, and have their exposure history checked. If a donor has been in a high-risk area, the medical team will inform the donor that they must wait 14-28 days after returning. Living donors are asked not to travel 14 days before donation and to monitor their symptoms.