The patient knew that she would be receiving a new lung. What she didn’t know was that a peanut allergy would ride along with the lung into her body. Her case was published in the journal Transplantation Proceedings. The case states that the 68-year-old lung transplant recipient developed a peanut allergy after her lung transplant. The woman’s name was not revealed in the report.
Before her transplant, the recipient had never experienced an allergic reaction triggered by peanuts. Doctors were baffled. She had no history of a nut allergy. But then her chest tightened. She had difficulty breathing. She required medical assistance—all because she ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
The lung donor had a severe peanut allergy. Doctors realized the connection between the donor’s peanut allergy and the lung recipient’s allergic reaction. They did more allergy testing. The recipient tested positive for allergies to other nuts as well as peanuts. She didn’t have any of these allergies before receiving her new lung.
What happened? When an organ is donated, much biological information about the individual giving it goes with it. The tissues in the organ bring their own traits into the new body. The messages that the organ sends into its new body might be the same messages it sent before. In this case, the lung’s cells carried the news that peanuts were an enemy. They made that message loud and clear in the recipient’s body. This alert prompted an allergic reaction.
What if the opposite could happen? Could a transplant recipient who has a food allergy lose their allergy when they get a transplant? In 2013, one ten-year-old boy got fantastic news! His severe peanut allergy vanished when he received a bone marrow transplant to treat his leukemia. What an unexpected surprise!
God’s design of each individual human body is complex. The way our organs function and the messages they send are fascinating. Even the ability for an essential bodily component to be shared is a wonderful feature of God's design. Still, it must be frustrating to acquire an allergy after an organ transplant. Do you think it’s a fair trade off to get an allergy for an organ?
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. — Psalm 139:13-14.
(Every three minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room. Transplant recipients risk developing a food allergy from their organ donor. This makes donor screening important. Photo: Public domain)
