A rare triple organ transplant was performed in India after a tapeworm infection caused a 45-year-old woman's liver, right lung and spleen to fail, the Hindustan Times reported via Yahoo India News.
The woman, called only Kamlesh, was referred to surgeons at Fortis Escorts hospital in Faridabad, about 15 miles south of Delhi, at a "critical stage," Dr. Prabal Roy, head of surgery at Fortis, told the Hindustan Times.
"She had difficulty in breathing and was vomiting blood," he said. "She also had complaints of severe chest and upper abdominal pain.”
The woman's organ failure was due to hydatid disease, a tapeworm infection usually found in dogs and sheep. Humans get infected when they eat contaminated food, according to the report.
Hydatid cysts can get lodged in the brain, liver, lung and spleen and can be life-threatening if they rupture.
“She had developed septicemia because of multiple hydatid cyst in the right lung, right lobe of liver and spleen," Roy said of the woman.
Although operating on three organs in different locations is a high-risk procedure, surgeons were forced to do so because any delays would have threatened the woman's life, Roy said.
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