Advertisement

  1. National

'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.

View all 18 updates ›

Worm-infected kidneys could not have been 'forseen'

The inquest into the deaths of two transplant patients has heard that the viruses and conditions the donor and his organ had been tested for included hepatitis, HIV, dengue fever and herpes - all of which proved negative.

UHW consultant surgeon Argiris Asderakis said pre-operation checks on the donor kidneys and the recipients gave him no cause for concern.

When Mr Asderakis was asked whether he or other doctors would have been expected to check for halcephalobus - a parasitic worm-, he replied:

"No, not at all. I had never even heard of it before.

"Nobody could have predicted what ended up being the first human to human transmission of this bug.

"Could I have foreseen it? No.

"I know this is no consolation to the families."

He also insisted that, given what he knew at the time, he considered the organs to be of "low risk".

More top news