Organ donation safe, secure health workers say after rare rabies death

KETTERING — Local leaders are reminding the community that organ donation is safe and secure. This comes after the rabies death of a kidney transplant recipient in Ohio.

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News Center 7′s Mike Campbell spoke with Vice President of Clinical Operations at Life Connections Kate Bagienski about the precautions and checks for donors that make transplants safe.

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There are no hospitals in the Dayton area that perform organ transplants, but Life Connections in Kettering works with donor families to procure organs for transplants.

“We do a pretty thorough assessment of the patient’s risks to be a donor,” Bagienski said.

Life Connections only works on organ procurement with donor families, they do not work on transplants or recipients. They do not supply organs to the University of Toledo Medical Center, where the patient who died of rabies had their procedure.

“We do things like lab work, we do physical assessments, we work with the medical team just based off their history just to assess all that risk before we even move forward with organ donation,” Bagienski said.

Investigators with both the Michigan and Ohio Departments of Health believe the transplant patient contracted rabies after their transplant surgery.

Rabies is most often associated with bats or dog bites, and only around 10 people die due to rabies each year.

“When we have a patient and we’ve gathered all the information, we share that transparently with the transplant surgeons so that they can find the best matches,” Bagienski said.

Bagienski and the Life Connections team are hopeful everyone can understand how rare this tragedy was and stand in support of organ donation.

“One organ donor can give up to eight organs and save many others through tissue and eye donations, so the impact of donation is incredible,” Bagienski said.

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