Whenever we’re going into surgery, you hope that your doctors are handling everything as carefully as possible. However, a 61-year-old patient ended up having a medical crisis weeks after his scheduled Kidney transplant surgery. The man was hospitalized with respiratory failure, intense vomiting, and a spreading rash. These life-threatening signs confused the doctors who had no idea what was going on with this patient. This was until they discovered the cause of the parasitic infection, a stercoralis worm infestation. The worst part? The infection didn’t originate from the patient’s body, but came with the donor’s kidney! Keep on reading to discover more about it.
A Donor-Linked Disaster to life-threatening parasites
The kidney came from a donor originally from the Caribbean, a region where Strongyloides is more common. However, the donor hadn’t been screened for parasites. This was a gap in protocol at the time. Once inside the immunosuppressed recipient, the larvae rapidly multiplied and spread to his lungs, intestines, and skin.
Strongyloides can lay dormant for years, but in transplant patients with weakened immune systems, the infection can turn deadly. In this case, standard oral treatments weren’t an option due to gastrointestinal complications. Doctors had to request emergency authorization to administer ivermectin subcutaneously, a delivery method typically used in veterinary medicine. They wanted to make sure this patient survived.
The Need for Universal Screening
The recipient wasn’t alone. The second patient who received the donor’s other kidney also became critically ill with the same parasite. The dual crisis highlights a dangerous blind spot in organ donation: parasitic infections, while rare, are often overlooked.
According to recent data, 42% of parasitic transmissions from organ donors involve Strongyloides. Experts only formally recommended universal screening in 2023, despite decades of transplant-related cases. This incident is now pushing medical authorities to treat parasite checks with the same urgency as viral or bacterial screenings. Especially when donors come from endemic regions. So, if you’re ever in need of a transplant, make sure they’re screening them for parasites too!
