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Kidney Recipient Dies After Transplant from Organ Donor Who Had Rabies

28 points by quapster 10mo ago

emseetech 10mo ago
If you've seen Scrubs...
m-hodges 10mo ago
My brain automatically went to Scrubs Season 5 Episode 20.
- rcarmo 10mo ago
  Mine replayed a couple of seasons of House, where this would be a staple in most episodes :)
mikkupikku 10mo ago
Was the kidney donor already dead, from something other than rabies, or were still alive for donation and later died?
- m-hodges 10mo ago
  The first half of the first sentence of the article: > A man died of rabies after getting a kidney transplant from another man who died of the virus
  - mikkupikku 10mo ago
    Yeah I phrases that wrong, I'm wondering if the donor was alive or if they harvested organs from somebody that was dead from rabies.
    - thaumasiotes 10mo ago
      They harvested organs from somebody who had died of rabies.
  - toast0 10mo ago
    That sentence doesn't indicate the sequence of events. Both of the following sequences match the sentence; thus the confusion. Sequence 1: Day 0) Donor contributes kidney to donee Day 10) Donor dies of rabies Day 15) Donee dies of rabies Sequence 2 (the incident sequence) Day 0) Donor shows symptoms of rabies (undiagnosed) Day 2) Donor dies of rabies (diagnosed as heart failure) Day 2+?) Donor's kidney is installed in donee Day N) Donee dies from rabies Day N+M) Donor's death is reevaluted and rabies is diagnosed
- mistersquid 10mo ago
  > Was the kidney donor already dead, from something other than rabies, or were still alive for donation and later died? FTA > About five weeks later, the man started to hallucinate, have trouble walking and swallowing, and had a stiff neck, according to the C.D.C. report. > Two days after his symptoms started, he collapsed of what was presumed to be a heart attack, the report said. The man was unresponsive and taken to a hospital, where he died. > Several of his organs were donated, including his left kidney.
  - Arwill 10mo ago
    I thought only organs of people dying in accidents are donated, and not someone's dying from an illness.
    - toast0 10mo ago
      I think the criteria for donation are most easily met by people who die as a result of something like a vehicle collision, but an otherwise healthy person who experiences sudden heart failure may have viable organs... From the reporting, this donor was not otherwise healthy, but maybe the symptoms were not known at the time or dismissed for some reason.
      - spwa4 10mo ago
        Not really. Organs from people who have died are almost always nonviable. So when it comes to vehicle collision victims, only people who are slowly dieing of internal hemorrhaging are used. Sudden heart failure organs are bad for two reasons: first, if the heart actually fails, you have minutes before organs are nonviable. Second, the medication that's used for trying to keep the heart beating will actually accelerate death, including organ death, if it doesn't work. Most organs come from from people, usually braindead, who are definitely going to die, but you have days or at least hours before the body actually loses the fight. And even then the extraction process needs to be started quickly, because in the process of dieing the body will, as it's losing blood, ie. power and oxygen, one-by-one cut off blood flow from organs to try to keep the heart, lungs and brain alive. Most organs that have had their blood flow cut off by the body can't be transplanted, so extraction needs to happen before that point. So that was probably the case here.
- mannykannot 10mo ago
  The donor died from rabies, and then several of his organs were donated. Furthermore: "Doctors reviewed records about the kidney donor and learned that the Idaho man’s family had disclosed the skunk scratch to doctors when his organs were being donated, the report said."
  - michael1999 10mo ago
    There are financial incentives to find/make organ donors.
DivingForGold 10mo ago
https://archive.ph/bIDff https://archive.ph/bIDff
phantasmish 10mo ago
FTA: “only four donors have transmitted rabies to recipients since 1979” ONLY?! Rabies cases are really uncommon! I’m seeing 17 in the us from 2015-2024. Even assume double or triple the rates in earlier decades and, what, maybe 200 since 1978? 2-4% chance a given person who dies of rabies has their organs given to someone else? That’s an order of magnitude higher than I’d have guessed. WTF.
- inglor_cz 10mo ago
  Theoretically, the donor could die before the rabies infection developed into a disease. For example, in a car crash. IDK if this was ever the case. The incubation period is definitely long enough for this to be a plausible scenario.
  - thaumasiotes 10mo ago
    Going by wikipedia, the incubation period can be up to three months. That isn't a particularly significant span of time if we're measuring how likely someone is to suffer an unexpected death. It's long enough that the possibility exists, but that's about all you can say.
    - gus_massa 10mo ago
      Assuming an even distribution of deaths: 3 months / 80 years = 0.3% But there is very little people that is incubating rabies.
      - jjk166 10mo ago
        But the question isn't "what are the odds someone who dies in this period has rabies" it's "what are the odds someone who died after being infected with rabies died before they started showing symptoms" so the rarity of people incubating rabies is irrelevant. Further, rabies incubation is highly variable - symptoms may not appear for years.
      - woleium 10mo ago
inglor_cz 10mo ago
Ironically, if you feed the symptoms of the donor into an AI and ask for differential diagnoses, it will tell you: "Is there any history of animal contact? In that case, consider rabies."
theturtle 10mo ago
[dead]
OptionOfT 10mo ago
I got a dermal graft in my hip. Unlike kidneys this is not really a live donation. The grafts are radiated to remove all DNA, so only the structure remains. The purpose of the transplant is to bridge torn tissue, and make the building blocks available to your body to rebuild the bridge (as I've been told). I hope that radiation killed all (if any) viruses...
bookofjoe 10mo ago
no paywall: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/health/rabies-death-skunk-kidney-transplant.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7E8.ygss.x0Pv8V7x9TcR&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/health/rabies-death-skunk...

28 points by quapster 10mo ago

emseetech 10mo ago

If you've seen Scrubs...

m-hodges 10mo ago

My brain automatically went to Scrubs Season 5 Episode 20.

rcarmo 10mo ago
Mine replayed a couple of seasons of House, where this would be a staple in most episodes :)

mikkupikku 10mo ago

Was the kidney donor already dead, from something other than rabies, or were still alive for donation and later died?

m-hodges 10mo ago
The first half of the first sentence of the article: > A man died of rabies after getting a kidney transplant from another man who died of the virus
- mikkupikku 10mo ago
  Yeah I phrases that wrong, I'm wondering if the donor was alive or if they harvested organs from somebody that was dead from rabies.
  - thaumasiotes 10mo ago
    They harvested organs from somebody who had died of rabies.
- toast0 10mo ago
  That sentence doesn't indicate the sequence of events. Both of the following sequences match the sentence; thus the confusion. Sequence 1: Day 0) Donor contributes kidney to donee Day 10) Donor dies of rabies Day 15) Donee dies of rabies Sequence 2 (the incident sequence) Day 0) Donor shows symptoms of rabies (undiagnosed) Day 2) Donor dies of rabies (diagnosed as heart failure) Day 2+?) Donor's kidney is installed in donee Day N) Donee dies from rabies Day N+M) Donor's death is reevaluted and rabies is diagnosed
mistersquid 10mo ago
> Was the kidney donor already dead, from something other than rabies, or were still alive for donation and later died? FTA > About five weeks later, the man started to hallucinate, have trouble walking and swallowing, and had a stiff neck, according to the C.D.C. report. > Two days after his symptoms started, he collapsed of what was presumed to be a heart attack, the report said. The man was unresponsive and taken to a hospital, where he died. > Several of his organs were donated, including his left kidney.
- Arwill 10mo ago
  I thought only organs of people dying in accidents are donated, and not someone's dying from an illness.
  - toast0 10mo ago
    I think the criteria for donation are most easily met by people who die as a result of something like a vehicle collision, but an otherwise healthy person who experiences sudden heart failure may have viable organs... From the reporting, this donor was not otherwise healthy, but maybe the symptoms were not known at the time or dismissed for some reason.
    - spwa4 10mo ago
      Not really. Organs from people who have died are almost always nonviable. So when it comes to vehicle collision victims, only people who are slowly dieing of internal hemorrhaging are used. Sudden heart failure organs are bad for two reasons: first, if the heart actually fails, you have minutes before organs are nonviable. Second, the medication that's used for trying to keep the heart beating will actually accelerate death, including organ death, if it doesn't work. Most organs come from from people, usually braindead, who are definitely going to die, but you have days or at least hours before the body actually loses the fight. And even then the extraction process needs to be started quickly, because in the process of dieing the body will, as it's losing blood, ie. power and oxygen, one-by-one cut off blood flow from organs to try to keep the heart, lungs and brain alive. Most organs that have had their blood flow cut off by the body can't be transplanted, so extraction needs to happen before that point. So that was probably the case here.
mannykannot 10mo ago
The donor died from rabies, and then several of his organs were donated. Furthermore: "Doctors reviewed records about the kidney donor and learned that the Idaho man’s family had disclosed the skunk scratch to doctors when his organs were being donated, the report said."
- michael1999 10mo ago
  There are financial incentives to find/make organ donors.

DivingForGold 10mo ago

https://archive.ph/bIDff https://archive.ph/bIDff

phantasmish 10mo ago

FTA: “only four donors have transmitted rabies to recipients since 1979” ONLY?! Rabies cases are really uncommon! I’m seeing 17 in the us from 2015-2024. Even assume double or triple the rates in earlier decades and, what, maybe 200 since 1978? 2-4% chance a given person who dies of rabies has their organs given to someone else? That’s an order of magnitude higher than I’d have guessed. WTF.

inglor_cz 10mo ago
Theoretically, the donor could die before the rabies infection developed into a disease. For example, in a car crash. IDK if this was ever the case. The incubation period is definitely long enough for this to be a plausible scenario.
- thaumasiotes 10mo ago
  Going by wikipedia, the incubation period can be up to three months. That isn't a particularly significant span of time if we're measuring how likely someone is to suffer an unexpected death. It's long enough that the possibility exists, but that's about all you can say.
  - gus_massa 10mo ago
    Assuming an even distribution of deaths: 3 months / 80 years = 0.3% But there is very little people that is incubating rabies.
    - jjk166 10mo ago
      But the question isn't "what are the odds someone who dies in this period has rabies" it's "what are the odds someone who died after being infected with rabies died before they started showing symptoms" so the rarity of people incubating rabies is irrelevant. Further, rabies incubation is highly variable - symptoms may not appear for years.
    - woleium 10mo ago

inglor_cz 10mo ago

Ironically, if you feed the symptoms of the donor into an AI and ask for differential diagnoses, it will tell you: "Is there any history of animal contact? In that case, consider rabies."

theturtle 10mo ago

[dead]

OptionOfT 10mo ago

I got a dermal graft in my hip. Unlike kidneys this is not really a live donation. The grafts are radiated to remove all DNA, so only the structure remains. The purpose of the transplant is to bridge torn tissue, and make the building blocks available to your body to rebuild the bridge (as I've been told). I hope that radiation killed all (if any) viruses...

bookofjoe 10mo ago

no paywall: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/health/rabies-death-skunk-kidney-transplant.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7E8.ygss.x0Pv8V7x9TcR&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/health/rabies-death-skunk...