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Woman dies of lung cancer after receiving transplant from smoker
Jennifer Wederell, 27, had no idea her lungs came from someone 'who smoked 20 cigarettes a day' when she received the transplant. She died from lung cancer the following year. Now her family wants to raise awareness about the organ shortage and encourage healthy donors to sign up.
By Rheana Murray / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Jennifer Wederell of Essex, England died from lung cancer in August.

A 27-year-old woman battling cystic fibrosis and clinging to life thought she got a second chance when she received a lung transplant in April 2011.

But the lungs were from a heavy smoker, and Jennifer Wederell, of England, contracted cancer and died the following year, BBC News reported.

"She was dying a death that was meant for someone else," said the young woman's father, Colin Grannell.

He says his daughter would have refused the transplant had she known the lungs came from a smoker.

But Wederell had no idea.

"The shock immediately turned to anger in so far as all the risks were explained in the hour before her transplant and not once was the fact that smoker's lungs would be used mentioned," Grannell said.

A Facebook page describes how the Essex woman married months before she was diagnosed with lung cancer in February 2012. That's when she learned her lungs came from someone who "smoked 20 cigarettes a day."

Despite Wederell's "fighting spirit," the disease had already spread throughout her body, and she was dead in August.

Harefield Hospital in London apologized to Wederell's family and called the situation an "oversight," but legally did no wrong.

Hospitals aren't required to divulge every detail about a potential donor's history, so long as the organ is healthy.

"You don't go through detailed histories of smoking, all that kind of stuff," Dr. Roblee Allen, professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at UC Davis, told the Daily News. "You tell them that the patient is free of any diseases, but the specifics aren't necessarily reviewed."

There's also the issue of donor privacy, Allen said.

While doctors have access to the medical history, families don't always want their loved ones' private details shared with a stranger.

Organs up for donation often come from smokers.

"A lot of people have smoking histories and donate," Allen said. "Does that put them at significant risk of developing lung cancer? Yeah, it does."

"You might say, 'These are not ideal lungs,' but you might not get another opportunity," he added.

Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at NYU, says Wederell should have been notified about the donor's status as a smoker anyway.

"The burden is on the transplant team to disclose significant risks, not on the patient to remember to ask," Caplan told the Daily News.

Because transplant lists are so long and the need for organs is so great - Wederell waited 18 months - many patients jump at the first opportunity, regardless of the status of the organ.

"The real truth in transplants is that most people aren't going to pass up an organ - even a high-risk one - because they're so hard to get," Caplan said. "Especially lungs. They're rare."

Wederell's family launched a campaign called Jennifer's Choice to raise awareness about the organ shortage and encourage non-smokers to sign up as donors.

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Bad things happen when you lay in front of an angry person's car.

Prosecutors said Christine A. Meyers' boyfriend found that out the extremely painful way when Meyers ran him over, causing severe burns to [his] chest and back, and tearing the skin off his testicles, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Meyers picked up her boyfriend from a bar and the couple started arguing as they drove to their home in Tinley Park, Ill. on Friday, court documents said.

When they got home, Meyers' boyfriend got out of the car and laid down in front of it, prosecutors said. That's when Meyers allegedly purposely ran over her boyfriend, causing the aforementioned damage to the man's anatomy.

Meyers' attorney, Tom Ost, asked Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. to set his client's bail at $6,000, meaning she would need to post $600 to leave jail, according to the Chicago Tribune.

"Are you serious?" Bourgeois said in response. "You're asking me to set a bond of $600 for driving over somebody? That is the charge."

Tinley Park Patch reports that Meyers is being held on $100,000 bail at Cook County Jail.

She's charged with one count of felony aggravated domestic battery.

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A man in New Delhi was angry when his waiter refused to eat his leftovers so he allegedly opened fire on the restaurant.

The incident happened early Sunday morning when the suspect, who is only being identified as "Rajesh," went to a restaurant called Jain Dhaba with two friends.

The trio was allegedly intoxicated and at one point, Rajesh and his friends asked the waiter, whose name was "Monu," to eat some of their paratha, a form of Indian flatbread, according to the Times Of India.

When Monu refused to eat the leftovers, an argument ensued and Rajesh allegedly took out a gun and fired it at the waiter, who ran for cover, according to DaijiWorld.com.

The waiter managed to call the police who arrested Rajesh shortly thereafter and charged him with attempted murder, according to Emirates247.com.

The suspect's two friends fled the crime scene, but officials have recovered a car, two live cartridges and a .32 bore pistol, according to NDTV.com.

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DAVIS, Calif. (AP) - A veterinarian at the University of California, Davis, has some good news about a dog from the Philippines who became an international hero after sacrificing her snout to save two young girls.

After completing six weekly intravenous chemotherapy infusions, Kabang appears to have beaten the cancer she was suffering from, Gina Davis, the primary care veterinarian at the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in Davis, told the San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/Ti87pl).

The dog, however, is still facing treatment for heartworms in her arteries before she can have the gaping wound on her face closed. Full treatment of that condition was put on hold during cancer therapy.

Kabang - a female mongrel - had the first of three arsenic-based heartworm shots on Dec. 4 and is expected to receive the other two in the second week of January, Davis said. "It will be one to two months for her to recover from that before she goes in and has the surgery," Davis said.

Kabang had her snout and upper jaw sheared off when she jumped in front of a speeding motorcycle, saving her owner's daughter and niece from serious injury or death, according to newspaper reports in the Philippines.

The dog ended up in Davis earlier this year after a nurse from Buffalo, N.Y., spearheaded a fundraising campaign to bring her to the U.S. Veterinarians in the Philippines were apparently unable to treat her injuries.

Surgeons are planning to perform two or three procedures. The first will involve dental work, extractions and covering exposed roots. They will then try to close the dog's wound and restore nasal functions. The dog's bony structures are currently exposed to air, increasing the chance of infection, Davis said.

Kabang may return to the Philippines in May or June. The bill for her treatment is expected to top $10,000. Davis said despite Kabang's many conditions, the dog appears to be in good spirits. "She has come through everything very well," Davis said. "Her appetite is still good. She's still bright and happy."

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