Iraq veteran dies of cancer after lung transplant from heavy smoker
An Iraq war veteran died after receiving cancerous lungs from a heavy smoker in a transplant.
Matthew Millington, 31, a corporal in the Queen’s Royal Lancers, had the operation to save him from an incurable respiratory condition.
But the organs were from a donor who was believed to have smoked 30 to 50 roll-up cigarettes a day. A tumour was found after the transplant, and its growth was accelerated by the ***** that Mr Millington took to prevent his body rejecting the organs.
Because he was a cancer patient, he was not allowed to receive a further pair of lungs, under hospital rules. The soldier had radiotherapy but died at home in Stoke-on-Trent in February last year.
His widow, Siobhan, said: “All Matthew wanted was another set of lungs. He said: ‘They have given me a dud pair, get me another set’. He thought he could beat it, but his condition deteriorated so fast from then.”
