British Iraq vet dies after cancerous lung transplant
A BRITISH veteran of the war in Iraq has died after receiving cancerous lungs from a heavy smoker in a transplant, media reports say.
Matthew Millington, 31, a corporal in the Queens Royal Lancers, had the operation to save him from an incurable respiratory condition, The Times reported today.
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 drugs Corp Millington took to prevent his body rejecting the organs.
Under hospital rules, as a cancer patient he was not allowed to receive a further pair of lungs.
The soldier died at home in Stoke-on-Trent in February last year.
