Posted on 12/19/2012 9:23:13 AM PST by Baynative
Jennifer Wederell, a 27-year-old British woman with cystic fibrosis, died of lung cancer after she received the lungs of a heavy smoker in an organ transplant.
(Excerpt) Read more at gma.yahoo.com ...
WOW
Appalling case, but dont tell me it hasnt happened in the US.
Donor screening nonexistent?
Never by lungs at a yard sale.
No surprise. When a smoker quits, the cardiovascular mortality decreases very soon. The lung cancer risk is never eliminated.
Can't say it hasn't. But, I'm willing to wager it will when the gov't takes over.
A college classmate of mine got a heart-lung transplant at about the same age. I did not hear that the donor was a smoker. He too died shortly after. These operations are not trivial, and a life with CF leaves a weakened body, transplant or no transplant.
The UK NHS is rapidly becoming a disaster.
This is probably a situation in which they used the smokere’s lungs on somebody whom they did not expect to survive and gave better ones to those whom were expected to survive.
Oopsie.
Brittish (Government) Healthcare at it finest!
Boy, I can’t wait for Obamacare!!!
“The Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust said: “It is very rare for patients to specify that they do not wish to be considered for clinically healthy lungs from smokers.”
“This is because the risks are much higher if patients decline donor lungs from a former smoker, and decide to wait for another set of organs which are both a match for them and from a non-smoker, to become available.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-20762437
They still should have let her know, though.
That's correct. Plus, the immunosuppressive therapy that all transplant patients receives enhances the likelihood that any cancer cells already present can grow unimpeded.
The Over/Under of posters who comment after only reading the headline and fail to read the rest which says she had to take the lungs because she had no choice and would have died waiting for the “perfect” lungs to come along
80%
Tell me about it. I knew 2 women who died of lung cancer 10 and 15 years after they quit smoking. The 15 year one was my neighbor who died within a month after being diagnosed and she was only in her 50s. I felt really bad because trying to cheer her up I was telling her getting cancer isn’t the same as it was 20 years ago and that she would pull through it which was total BS on my part.
You won't be waiting long Jack.
Say, you're not using both those kidneys are you?
Poor young lady. RIP.
You’re exactly correct.
I also know that in many hospitals here in the US, the lungs of smokers or former smokers are NEVER accepted for transplant, no matter what condition they may be in.
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