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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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Robert Stuart died from consequences of medical treatment

Robert Stuart with his wife.

The Coroner has ruled that Robert Stuart died as a result of his necessary medical treatment.

Robert James Stuart died from Meningoencephalitis on the 17th December 2013, after undergoing a kidney transplant on the 30th November 2013. The source of the infection was the transplanted kidney and the agent of infection was the Halicephalobus nematode present in this kidney.

The kidney had been rejected by several transplant centres before it was accepted for Mr Stuart, either because of its poor function or because of the donor's cause of death. It was not rejected because of the Halicephalobus nematode, or accepted in spite of it, as this organism is almost unknown to medical science and there was no test for it in the circumstances of this transplant. Robert James Stuart died from the unintended consequences of necessary medical intervention.

– Coroner
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'No failure' when parasitic worm kidneys were transplanted

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