Lung transplant was cancerous

Cpl Matthew Millington, 31, had the transplant after he fell seriously ill.

But less than a year later the soldier, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, died after it transpired he had been given cancerous lungs from a donor who had smoked.

An inquest last week heard he died of complications of transplant surgery and immuno-suppressive drug treatment, it has been reported.

Cpl Millington, who served in the Queen's Royal Lancers, was serving in Iraq in 2005 when he was diagnosed with an incurable condition and told he would die unless he had a transplant.

He received a double lung transplant in April 2007 at the Papworth Hospital - the UK's largest specialist cardiothoracic hospital.

But doctors discovered a tumour in the new lungs and despite radiotherapy, Cpl Millington died in February last year, just 10 months after the supposedly life-saving operation.

A spokeswoman for Papworth Hospital said it was an extremely rare case. She said: "Papworth Hospital has a very strong track record of high quality outcomes and this is an extremely rare case. Patients who are accepted on to the transplant waiting list have no other option open to them however we must stress that all donor organs are screened rigorously prior to transplantation.

"Using lungs from donors who have smoked in the past is not unusual. During 2008/09 146 lung transplants were carried out in the UK. During the same period 84 people died on the waiting list. If we had a policy that said we did not use the lungs of those who had smoked, then the number of lung transplants carried out would have been significantly lower."

Mr Millington's family told the Stoke Sentinel they had nothing against the hospital. Father Lester told the paper: "We have absolutely nothing against them at all. It is a brilliant place and they are so friendly."