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'No failure' when parasitic worm kidneys were transplanted

A surgeon made 'no failures' when he decided to use two kidneys which were infected with a parasitic worm in organ transplants for two men, a Coroner has said.

Cardiff Coroner's Court heard the organs implanted in Darren Hughes and Robert 'Jim' Stuart had been rejected by several other hospitals before they were eventually used.

The two men died shortly after their operations, with a post-mortem pointing to an infection caused by the parasitic worm Halicephalobus.

Although doctors at the time had no idea the rare parasite was present, before these cases it had only been recorded in five humans.

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Surgeon accepted donor's kidneys despite meningitis

A surgeon has explained to an inquest why he was content to receive kidneys for two men from an alcoholic donor who had died from meningitis.

Argiris Asderakis, Consultant Transplant Surgeon at University Hospital of South Wales, told the hearing he was initially told the donor died from meningoencephalitis - a medical condition that resembles meningitis and brain infection encephalitis.

Giving evidence at Cardiff Coroner's Court, Asderakis said he believed that the threat of a virus in the organs, which had been rejected by several hospitals, was "most likely" covered by the treatment the donor had been receiving.

Robert Stuart, 67, from Cardiff, and Darren Hughes, 42, of Bridgend, both died after being given kidneys from an alcoholic donor infected with the deadly parasitic worm halcephalobus.

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'No failure' when parasitic worm kidneys were transplanted

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