THREE women died within one week of each other after they received diseased organs in transplant procedures at the Austin and Royal Melbourne hospitals, an inquest has heard.

But at least one may have reconsidered her decision to receive a kidney transplant if she had known the donor had hepatitis B.

The women - Gurpal Sandhu, 64, Carmellina Sirianni, 63, and Karen Wilkinson, 43 - are believed to have died from arenavirus, a rare and recently detected rodent disease that has never infected other transplant patients.

The donor, Jovo Vranjesevic, 57, died in late 2006 of a cerebral haemorrhage, having returned to Australia for three weeks from Serbia and 15 kilograms lighter.

Mr Vranjesevic's surgeon Michael Fink told the Coroners Court yesterday that when he harvested Mr Vranjesevic's kidneys and liver it was not his responsibility to determine whether the organs would be used for transplant, but only if they were suitable.