The patient had the organ transplanted at a hospital in Ohio in December and died in January, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Lynn Sutfin said.
A subsequent investigation that also involved the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Ohio Department of Health determined the patient got rabies from the donated organ. Sutfin did not specify which organ was transplanted.
Episode in Scrubs…
What a terrible way to die
Scrubs episode come to life.
I just read more than I thought was enough. https://www.news-medical.net/health/Why-is-the-Rabies-CFR-So-High.aspx
I’m not sure rabies is screened in donors. Thats brutal.
For good reason, it’s extremely rare.
Edit: The statistic i looked up, is less than 10 cases a year. It would be a waste of resources to test for rabies on every organ donor. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they start testing now.
A quick search shows rabies testing is $80 to ~$200. Given the cost and time a transplant takes I would say testing for rabies would be insignificant. But health insurance companies are assholes so they probably would not cover the cost due to the rarity of the disease. Cheaper for them to let people die and families sue.
That’s fair, but where do you draw the line at testing for diseases? There are so many things a patient could have. I don’t think its just about insurance companies.
Edit: my point is, at some point you are wasting precious time for the people who need the organs, and they might die. Testing for extremely rare disease/illnesses might even be considered irresponsible. You’re getting diminishing returns testing for super rare stuff, and since there are so many things that are rare, you have to make a call about what to actually test.
Ya I get it, that would be expensive and impractical.
I’m pretty sure it isn’t part of any normal testing. Maybe if there were symptoms in the donor that indicated rabies or their family noted they had interactions with wild animals, but typically I think it’s mostly hepatitis, HIV, syphilis, toxoplasmosis, cytomegalovirus, chagas, and west Nile that are always checked for.
you got it! I’m just wrapping up schooling for med lab so thanks for the refresher!
Plus the test for rabies needs brain tissue, cant just test blood or the organ to be transplanted
This was not the kind of nightmare fuel I expected when I logged on to Lemmy today.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that. You better drop my ass into a coma or straight up kill me before I have to go through a rabies death.
I’m sure RFK’s CDC will get right to the bottom of what happened here and prevent it from happening again /s
More vitamin A would have saved them. /s
And methylene blue! Sure it gives you diarrhea, but its blue!
If everyone has rabies, then, no one has rabies!
“How did the organ donor die?!?!”
“Oh, rabies.”
That image looks so bad! Is that really what rabies virus looks like?
Most things look pretty bad and gross when you zoom in on them close enough.
Well now I have another question to add to my list of things to discuss with the surgeon before I accept any organ transplants.
Someone needs to put together a memorial celebrity rabies awareness pro-am fun run race for the cure, i guess
What a horrific story
