2 dads die after being given kidneys infected with PARASITES from homeless alcoholic

     

 Father-of-six Darren Hughes, 42, and new grandfather Robert "Jim" Stuart, 67, were kept in the dark by doctors at a Welsh NHS hospital about the lifestyle of their donor – or the cause of his death was unknown.

The two men died within days of being given kidney transplants unknowingly infected with a parasitic worm which had killed their donor.
Darren's father Ian Hughes told the inquest he had to sign the transplant consent form for his disabled son.
Mr Hughes said: "Darren was not told he would be receiving an infected kidney. I now feel that I signed his death warrant."
He said the family were told after the death of Darren that the donor had cirrhosis of the liver and was an alcoholic living rough.
He told the inquest that all other hospitals had rejected the organs as unfit.
Judith Stuart, the wife of Robert, said the couple had just returned from a cruise and were looking forward to the birth of their second grandchild after his transplant.
She said: "We weren't told anything whatsoever about the donor or his lifestyle. I walked down with Jim and said goodbye at the theatre doors."
The families of both men said they would not have given consent for the transplant if they had been told about the background of the donor and the unknown circumstances of his death.
The inquest heard no post mortem had been carried out on the donor following his unusual death before his organs were offered for transplant.
The organs of the homeless donor had been rejected by every hospital they had been offered to before they were accepted by the University of Wales Hospital in Cardiff.
They both died within days of undergoing their kidney transplants from the same parasitic worm that had infected the donor.
Doctors were not aware the donor had the worm – known as Halicephalobus which lives in soil and is found in horses – when the transplant operations were carried out.
The parasite lays eggs in the liver and kidneys and then travels to the brain.
Mr Stuart and Mr Hughes began to "deteriorate rapidly" after their surgery and died less than three weeks later.

culled from daily star