There are many patients standing in line for a transplant hoping their life will get better once they receive the organ they need. This was the case of four patients who received the organs of a 15-year old New York boy, not knowing that, instead of defeating death, they will end up dying or fighting again against it.

The rare incident happened last year and was reported in the January issue of the American Journal of Transplantation. The report said the parents of 15-year-old Alex Koehne decided to donate the liver, pancreas and kidneys of their son immediately after his death in March 2007, from what doctors at the Stony Brook University Medical Center thought was bacterial meningitis.

After an autopsy performed on the boy at his parents’ request, Jim and Lisa Koehne, they learned that the boys was misdiagnosed and had actually died of a rare lymphoma, a condition that would have precluded a transfer. Unfortunately, it was too late because they had already donated his organs and four recipients had received them.

Koehne’s mother also learned that the 36-year old woman who received her son’s pancreas died in May after the organ was removed from her. Also, two men who received her son’s kidneys underwent chemotherapy and are now recuperating. The 52-year old man who received the donated liver died in July last year.

Spreading of cancer through organ donation is rare, happening only about a handful of times annually. The New York State Department of Health recently cleared Stony Brook and the New York University Medical Center, which received two of the organs, of any wrongdoing in the Koehne case.

NYU and the University of Minnesota, which also transplanted one of the diseased organs, have since changed their policies and now require stronger proof of bacterial meningitis.

The New York Organ Network, which coordinates donations in New York did not comment on the case.