An Adelaide man has missed out on his chance for a kidney transplant after fire sprinklers went off in a surgical suite at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, contaminating the donated organ.
Frank Lopresto was diagnosed with IgA nephropathy — an autoimmune disease that attacks the kidneys — 14 years ago.
The 53-year-old started dialysis in 2019 and has been on the kidney donor waiting list for three-and-a-half years.
On Monday he received a phone call telling him a suitable match was available.
"A really good match with your tissue type, your blood group, because I'm not a very common blood type, and he was a very fit, young, healthy man," Mr Lopresto said.
"So I jumped at the chance, I said, 'Yeah, I'll take it.'"
Mr Lopresto went into surgery on Wednesday afternoon, but when he woke up he was told the transplant had not gone ahead because the sprinklers had gone off mid-procedure.
"I was still heavily sedated so I thought it was a dream," he said.
But as he came to, Mr Lopresto said hospital staff explained the water had contaminated the donor kidney, so it could not be used.
Not only that, but they had already made an incision into Mr Lopresto that needed to be disinfected.
"Because everyone was covered in water they wheeled me into another theatre and cleaned me out, cleaned out the wound with Betadine and saline to try and remove any risk of infection," he said.
"Before a transplant they give you immunosuppressants to shut down your immune system to accept the donor organ, so they were really worried that the wound was going to be contaminated.
"It's a million to one shot but I've never, ever heard of this and if someone had written it in a movie I would say that's bullshit."
Mr Lopresto currently spends three nights a week in hospital getting dialysis and said a successful transplant would be life-changing.
"I've got a young daughter, we want to travel, we want to do stuff," he said.
"I want to take her fishing, do something but day trips are even hard."
Because Saturday is one of the nights he receives dialysis, it means he often cannot participate in family events.
"Most parties are on Saturday night, I can't go and events, family gatherings are usually Saturday night, I can't go," he said.
"And after dialysis, the day after dialysis I am absolutely wrecked for half the day.
"It takes a lot of energy out of you. I wouldn't recommend this life to anybody."
Health Minister calls to apologise for incident
The Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) said the fire sprinkler head "unexpectedly activated, flooding the area".
"We sincerely apologise to the patient and their family and acknowledge that this has caused a great deal of distress for everyone involved," the network said in a statement.
"The patient will remain on the transplant list and we will continue to provide care ongoing."
CALHN said it was investigating the cause, the sprinkler has been replaced, and all sprinkler heads of a similar nature were being inspected urgently.
Mr Lopresto said it was not the first time he had missed out on a transplant — a year ago a suitable kidney was available, but he was in isolation with COVID.
"What can they say, 'We'll put you on the top priority, next available transplant', but who knows when that's going to be?" he said.
"I waited two years for the first one and then a year after for the second one."
Mr Lopresto said the Health Minister Chris Picton had also called him, and said he was apologetic and promised to get to the bottom of what happened.
For now, Mr Lopresto remains in hospital where he has been receiving intravenous antibiotics, and said he has been treated well by staff.
"The hospital staff here are fantastic, I couldn't fault them one little bit," he said.
"All the surgeons came to see me, all the doctors, nurses have been coming to visit me."
SA Health said two non-transplant elective surgeries were postponed due to the flooding, but it did not expect any further delays or disruptions.
