Just How Safe Are Donor Organs? Four People Get Cancer From Donated Organs

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I actually heard this awhile ago, about how four people who received donated organs to help their own health problems, later contracted cancer, and two died as a result. A young teenager, aged fifteen, named Alex Koehne was dying of bacterial meningitis and his parents agreed that his organs be donated to help anyone who needed donor organs. However, it turned out that he didn't die of meningitis, but of a rare form of lymphoma that wasn't found until his autopsy--as a result two of the recipients of the organs died and the remaining two are now undergoing cancer treatments Here's part of the whole article: (quote) GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - Alex Koehne had a love for life, and always wanted to help people. So when his parents were told that their 15-year-old son was dying of bacterial meningitis, the couple didn't hesitate in donating his organs to desperately ill transplant recipients. "I immediately said, 'Let's do it'," Jim Koehne recalled. "We both thought it was a great idea. This is who Alex was." A year later, their dream that Alex's spirit might somehow live on has become a nightmare. Autopsy discovery It turned out that Alex did not die of bacterial meningitis, but rather a rare form of lymphoma that wasn't found until his autopsy, and apparently spread to the organ recipients. The Long Island couple was told that two of the recipients have died, and two others had the donor kidneys removed and are getting cancer treatment. The revelation has led two hospitals to revise transplant procedures, although the state Health Department found that no one was to blame. Experts say the possibility of getting cancer from an organ donor is extremely rare: Only 64 cases have been identified in a national study of 230,000 cases, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. "A 15-year-old boy's organs are a gift from the Almighty," said transplant surgeon Lewis Teperman, noting the majority of organ donors are much older than Alex. "Usually the organs from a 15-year-old are perfect. In this case, they weren't." Teperman is the director of transplantation at New York University Medical Center, where two of the transplants were done and lead author of a report on the case. Last March, Alex was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital on Long Island after treatment at another hospital for nausea, vomiting, severe back and neck pain, seizures and double vision. Doctors told his parents they suspected he had bacterial meningitis — an infection of the fluid surrounding the spinal cord and brain — although tests didn't reveal what bacteria caused it. He was treated with antibiotics but died on March 30. The Koehnes requested an autopsy. They were told a month later that Alex had actually died from a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a blood cancer which affects fewer than 1,500 patients in the U.S. annually. "Our jaws dropped," Jim Koehne recalled. "We walked out of there crying." Jim and Lisa Koehne (pronounced KAY-na) later learned that a 52-year-old man died of the same rare lymphoma about four months after receiving Alex's liver. The couple said they were also told a 36-year-old woman who received Alex's pancreas also developed lymphoma and died. Two patients who received the kidneys are undergoing cancer treatment and are faring well, according to the report in the January issue of the American Journal of Transplantation. All four recipients were notified immediately of the autopsy results and got chemotherapy, the report said. None have been publicly identified.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24001110/ My question is, why did they decide to do an autopsy AFTER the fact, after the organs had already been transplanted...shouldn't they have done an autopsy BEFORE? Just to make sure that these organs were disease free? And while the article states that such an occurrence is rare, is it really? I mean here people who are in desperate need of a life saving organ to help them live a normal life only to find out that the organ transplant was diseased and creates the same disease in them or even death. Like how stupid is this?