A Michigan man died of rabies he contracted after receiving a kidney transplant from a donor who became infected — and later died — while rescuing a kitten from a rabid skunk, according to health officials.
The unidentified patient received the Idaho donor’s left kidney during a December 2024 transplant in Ohio — only to suffer a fever, tremors, weakness, confusion, difficulty swallowing, fear of water, and loss of bladder control five weeks later, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The recipient was rushed to the hospital as his condition rapidly worsened, but after a week of treatment, he died. Postmortem tests revealed the shocking cause, the CDC report published last Thursday said.
“This is an exceptionally rare event,” Dr. Lara Dazinger-Isakov, who heads infectious diseases for immunocompromised patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, told the New York Times.
“Overall, the risk is exceptionally small.”
A deep dive into the unidentified donor’s records found that the donor’s family had reported he was scratched on the shin while fending off a skunk showing “predatory aggression” toward a kitten he was holding on his rural property in October 2024, according to the report.
Five weeks later, the donor suddenly started hallucinating, struggling to swallow and walk, and developed a stiff neck. He was found unresponsive at home from a suspected heart attack two days later, health officials said.
Though doctors briefly revived him at the hospital, he was declared brain-dead and removed from life support seven days later — with his organs donated after his family disclosed the skunk mark.
While his infected kidney went to the Michigan victim, three people received his corneas. The grafts were swiftly removed, and the surviving patients were placed on preventative medication, the report states.
“In this case, hospital staff members who treated the donor were initially unaware of the skunk scratch and attributed his pre-admission signs and symptoms to chronic co-morbidities,” health officials said.
Organ donations aren’t usually screened for rabies, the CDC explained, since human cases are a “rarity.”
The death of the kidney recipient marks just the fourth known case of rabies spreading through a transplant in the US since 1978, health officials said, stressing the odds of infection remain extremely low.
Fewer than 10 humans die from rabies annually, though over 3,500 animals test positive each year.
