Organs donated by a 15-year-old teen have led to the death of two people due to a undiagnosed cancer. Alex Koehne died a year ago from what was thought to be bacterial meningitis, which does not preclude organ transplantation after death. His parents agreed to give away their son's organs to save the lives of others, but instead they finally killed their recipients.

According to a report published in the January issue of the American Journal of Transplantation, Alex's liver went to a 52-year-old man, his pancreas to a 36-year-old woman, and his kidneys to a pair of men, ages 46 and 64. Shortly after the transplants, the autopsy performed on Alex Koehne showed that he actually died from a rare form of cancer, anaplastic T-cell lymphoma.

The two patients who received the liver and pancreas both died. Only the two men who received the kidneys are still alive, as their organs were taken out and they underwent chemotherapy.

An investigation has found that the medical unit where the organs were harvested, the Stony Brook University Medical Center, has followed all necessary protocols related to organ donation. This means that the accident would have happened regardless of the hospital where Alex would have died.

"It’s a very, very rare event," says to CBS Dr. Lewis Teperman, director of transplantation at New York University Medical Center, where two of the four organs ended up. He and another doctor have authored the report published on the case.

"We're alerting people to the fact that if someone calls a death from bacterial meningitis and there is no bacteria, we're saying, you know what, let's back off for a little bit and reconsider whether we're going to use these organs," Teperman says to CBS.