A British hospital claims it had no choice when it gave the lungs of a heavy smoker to a corporal in the Queen’s Royal Lancers during transplant surgery that was supposed to save the young man’s life.
Papworth Hospital, the United Kingdom’s top cardiothoracic facility, defended its practice of using organs from smokers, saying that if it didn’t, dozens more on the transplant list would die before healthier organs became available. Corporal Matthew Millington, age 31, received a double lung transplant at the hospital after developing an incurable lung disease while serving in Iraq. The transplant took place in April 2007 and the soldier died in February 2008.
According to a CNN article, an inquest found that a hospital radiologist failed to identify a cancerous growth on the donor lungs, which belonged to a man who smoked up to 50 cigarettes a day. The immuno-suppressant drugs Millington took to avoid rejection of the lungs also caused the tumor to grow more rapidly than it normally would, a hospital spokesperson noted. Radiation therapy was not successful in treating the cancer.
Despite this obvious error in judgment, Papworth is revered as one of the foremost hospitals of its kind in the United Kingdom. Physicians like Dr. Robert Winter, a top expert in the field of adult respiratory medicine, practice at this esteemed facility and care for patients with a wide variety of lung ailments, including mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer that is well-known in England due to decades-long use of the toxic mineral.
Mesothelioma causes include exposure to and inhalation of hazardous asbestos particles, which become lodged in the lungs and can cause scarring and, eventually, cancerous tumors. The disease is common among those who worked in Britain’s shipyards and among a number of other tradespeople as well, including construction workers, mechanics, plumbers, pipe fitters, electricians, welders, railroad workers, and others. Unfortunately, mesothelioma treatment is rarely successful because the disease is generally not diagnosed until its later stages, but newer chemotherapy drugs like Alimta® are beginning to show some promise in the successful treatment of this difficult-to-fight cancer.
Dr. Winter and his colleagues consistently participate in clinical trials addressing new treatments for malignant mesothelioma, including a current Phase III trial that measures the success of video-assisted pleurectomy surgery in the treatment of individuals with the disease.
