A Michigan grandpa was killed by the kidney donation he thought would save his life — because the organ donor was infected with rabies from a skunk in a medical nightmare that could affect other organ recipients, according to health officials.
Barney Kurowicki, of Tecumseh, Michigan, had been on dialysis for two years when he received a kidney transplant from James Martin, a 59-year-old Idaho father of three, in December 2024, Scripps News reported this week.
Martin had died the previous year of what his family believed was heart problems, said his widow Kim Martin told the outlet.
“We had no idea,” Kim Martin said of his rabies infection.
But soon after Kurowicki got the transplant at the University of Toledo Medical Center in Ohio, the retired postal worker was struck by tremors, lower extremity weakness, confusion — and an inexplicable fear of water that tipped off doctors, according to a CDC report cited by the outlet.
He died within days, according to the report.
Testing and an investigation led researchers to determine he had contracted rabies from Martin — who had been scratched by a skunk on the left shin while rescuing his family kitten from the animal in fall 2024.
“He’s like, ‘I’m — I’ll be fine. It’s just a scratch. I’ll just put, you know, Neosporin on it, and I’ll be fine after I get it cleaned,” Kim said.
Martin’s family believed he had died from heart-related problems, so his other organs were donated to recipients and researchers in six states.
Martin, however, soon got sick, lost consciousness and fell into a coma.
His family assumed it was in part due to a lengthy list of other health problems he’d suffered for years, Kim said.
The organs he donated were then tested for more common diseases such as HIV and hepatitis before being shipped to transplant recipients — but they were not tested for rabies, which kills about 10 people in the US annually.
“Given that there is such a need for organs and that timing in organ donation can be very critical, if we had to wait two or three days to test every organ donor for rabies … that could delay care, could delay people receiving organs that they need,” said David McCormick, a medical officer in the CDC’s Office of Blood, Organ, and Other Tissue Safety who helped investigate this case.
The last time the CDC reported someone contracting rabies through an organ or tissue transplant in the US was in 2013, and prior to that it was 2004.
“This is a very rare event,” said McCormick. “Organ transplantation in the United States is very safe.”
A committee tasked with reducing donor-derived illnesses during organ transplants has since proposed adding screening questions that will help determine if a donor has had contact with rabies, along with a system for working with an organ procurement group to help determine risk.