organ transplants

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Japanese Law Prevents Boy's Life-Saving Transplant

(Newser) - A Japanese law prevents 11-year-old Hiroki Ando from receiving the heart he so desperately needs, CNN reports. Ando suffers from cardiomyopathy and will likely die—as his sister did 5 years ago—without a heart transplant. But the minimum age for organ donations in Japan is 15. "This stipulation...

Jobs Mulls Liver Transplant
 Jobs Mulls Liver Transplant 
Jan 16, 2009 4:41 PM CST

Jobs Mulls Liver Transplant

Ailing Apple founder claims not to get high interest level in his condition

(Newser) - With rumors rampant, Steve Jobs is considering a liver transplant. The Apple CEO’s announcement Wednesday that he’ll take a leave of absence to deal with his apparently deteriorating health has the rumor mill working 24/7, but he professes ignorance. Reached by phone, he asked a Bloomberg reporter, “...

Rich Foreigners Jump List for Brit Organs

Doctors outraged as a record 8,000 Britons await transplants

(Newser) - Despite dire organ shortages for ailing British patients, the livers of 50 UK donors were sold to foreigners for nearly $110,000 each, the Times of London reports. Forty patients from Greece and Cyprus—as well as others from non-EU nations including Libya, the UAE, China, and Israel—received liver...

Organ Donors Breathe Life Into Death Debate

Bioethicists weigh ethical, organ-transplant concerns

(Newser) - The art of extracting human organs has revived a debate about when a person is actually dead, the Economist reports. Forty years ago, the Catholic Church agreed with scientists that brain dead meant dead. But now that doctors are skirting that rule, harvesting organs from horribly brain-damaged donors who are...

Harvesting Babies' Organs Scrutinized
Harvesting Babies' Organs Scrutinized
Aug 14, 2008 10:09 AM CDT

Harvesting Babies' Organs Scrutinized

Critics say hearts removed too soon to be sure donor was dead

(Newser) - A report on heart transplants involving babies has raised some thorny questions of medical ethics, the Washington Post reports. Hearts were taken from newborns suffering severe brain damage less than two minutes after the babies were disconnected from life support. The hearts saved the lives of terminally ill babies, but...

4 Japanese Gangsters Get UCLA Liver Transplants

FBI helped one crime boss with his visa

(Newser) - Four Yakuza gangsters, including one of Japan's most powerful crime bosses, had liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center between 2000 and 2004, the Los Angeles Times reports. Organs were particularly scarce in those years, with over 100 people on the waiting list dying each year. There is no indication that...

NYC Plans Organ-Recovery Ambulance
NYC Plans Organ-Recovery Ambulance
May 24, 2008 10:45 AM CDT

NYC Plans Organ-Recovery Ambulance

Proposal for quick harvesting raises thorny questions

(Newser) - New York City is planning a “rapid-organ-recovery ambulance” that would collect the bodies of victims of sudden deaths to be used for organ transplants, hoping to ease a pressing need for donors, the Washington Post reports. But the idea has sparked controversy among health and bioethics experts, concerned over...

Battle Brews Over Medical Marijuana, Organ Transplants

Seattle man dies awaiting donor liver

(Newser) - Potential organ recipients who are using medically prescribed marijuana are being removed from transplant waiting lists, raising serious questions about transplant programs' screening processes, reports the LA Times. A Seattle man died last month after being denied a donor liver, and a critically ill man in Washington state has been...

Need Cash? Got a Kidney?
Need Cash?
Got a Kidney?
May 5, 2008 6:17 PM CDT

Need Cash? Got a Kidney?

Personal kidney sales ($50K a pop) would speed up system, Aussie doc says

(Newser) - An Australian doctor says the young and healthy should be allowed to sell a kidney for $50,000 Australian (about $47,000 US). Otherwise, patients either languish for years without a needed transplant or travel to third-world countries where they can buy organs on the black market, the Sydney Morning ...

Transplant List Called Misleading

1/3 of patients on the list not eligible for surgery

(Newser) - Thousands of patients on a national list for organ transplants are actually ineligible to receive them, the Washington Post reports. One third of the 98,000 patients on the United Network for Organ Sharing list are either too sick or too healthy to get a new organ. Critics say including...

6-Year-Old Injured in Pool Accident Dies

Horrific injury led to new safety regs on swimming pool drains

(Newser) - The little girl whose injury from a swimming pool drain spurred new safety laws has lost her fight for life, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports. Six-year-old Abigail Taylor died Thursday evening after transplant surgery failed to restore the part of her intestinal track that was ripped out by a powerful drain...

Case Against Transplant Doc Raises Concern

Prosecution claims he killed for organs; others say technique to blame

(Newser) - Charges against a California surgeon for hastening the death of a disabled man so his organs could be harvested for transplants has advocates worried, the New York Times reports. At issue is whether Dr. Hootan Roozrokh ignored protocol in pursuit of organs for transplant or if he misused, or misunderstood,...

UK Pushes 'Opt-Out' Organ Donor Plan

Patient groups say 'presumed consent' is no consent at all

(Newser) - UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is backing an initiative to let hospitals harvest organs from dead patients without their consent, the Telegraph reports. The plan, which could take effect this year, presumes consent unless patients opt out or family members object. The goal is to help the 1,000 Britons...

Scientists Rebuild Heart With Stem Cells

Advance could save heart disease patients, regrow other organs

(Newser) - Scientists rebuilt rat and pig hearts using stem cells taken from the recipients themselves, the Telegraph reports—a medical breakthrough that could help the 22 million people who suffer from heart failure worldwide. The technique, called whole organ decellularization, produced the world’s first functioning “bioartificial” heart within eight...

Organ Donor Gives HIV to 4 Chicago Patients

Flaw in tests allowed disease to go undetected

(Newser) - A flaw in HIV testing procedures led to the infection of four organ-transplant recipients in Chicago, the Tribune reports, the first such cases in more than 20 years. Follow-up tests were never performed, so the four are only now discovering their infections from the January transplants. The donor was flagged...

Plane Crash Kills Transplant Team
Plane Crash Kills Transplant Team
Jun 6, 2007 4:33 AM CDT

Plane Crash Kills Transplant Team

Surgeons carrying organs to critical patient lost in Lake Michigan

(Newser) - Six members of a transplant team on a life-saving mission were killed when their plane plunged into Lake Michigan, 6 miles from Milwaukee. The AP reports the team included the pilot and co-pilot  of the Cessna Citation, a cardiac surgeon, a transplant donor specialist and a trainee in pediatric cardiothoracic...

Kidney Donor Reality Show Was a Hoax

Broadcaster draws praise for raising awareness of transplant-organ shortage

(Newser) - A controversial Dutch reality show featuring a dying woman’s choice of a kidney recipient aired last night—and was revealed as a hoax. The "donor" was an actor; the contestants were real patients who were in on the prank. A producer said the goal was to call attention...

Medical Reality Show Raises Controversy

Kidney donor, on deathbed, to select recipient on Dutch TV

(Newser) - The brains behind "Big Brother" are branching out into medicine and stirring up serious controversy in the process. "The Big Donor Show," set to air on Dutch TV Friday, follows a terminally ill woman as she chooses among three contestants vying for one of her kidneys. One...

China Has Change of Heart On Transplants

Puts a stop to lucrative transplant tourism

(Newser) - China is rethinking a major medical cash cow: providing organ transplants for Westerners on overcrowded waiting lists at home. "Transplant tourism" has been a particularly popular option in Israel, where insurers are required to pony up  for overseas operations. But health officials recently ruled that organs should not be...

Heart Valve Grown From Stem Cells

Could be available for human transplants in three years

(Newser) - A  British team has grown a human heart valve from stem cells—a breakthrough certain to ignite as much controversy as hope. Sir Magdi Yacoub, professor of cardiac surgery at Imperial College, tells the Guardian that growing a whole human heart from stem cells is less than a decade away:...

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