liver transplants

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New Research May Shift Thinking on Liver Donors
'Centurion Livers' May
Shift Thinking on Donors
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'Centurion Livers' May Shift Thinking on Donors

Transplanted organ can function for decades, suggesting accepting older donors should be encouraged

(Newser) - A new study into transplanted livers finds that the organs can continue functioning for a long time in a new recipient—sometimes for a combined total of more than 100 years between the donor and patient. The takeaway from the research is that hospitals shouldn't be too quick to...

Hepatitis Jump Among Children Concerns CDC

Infection is the leading suspect, but agency says it's 'casting a wide net'

(Newser) - The startling rise in unexplained hepatitis cases in children officially has the interest of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency announced Friday that it's investigating 109 cases in 24 states and Puerto Rico, including five deaths, for which the cause is unknown. The CDC had issued...

Surgeon Loses License for Act of 'Professional Arrogance'

UK's Simon Bramhall had burned his initials into livers of 2 patients in 2013

(Newser) - Update: A British surgeon who burned his initials into the livers of two patients no longer has a medical license. On Monday, the UK's Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service found Simon Bramhall, 57, had broken trust with his patients through his actions during the 2013 surgeries, and that the branding...

New Machine Helps Livers Survive, Regenerate Outside Body

This could be a huge breakthrough in transplant technology

(Newser) - The liver is an amazing organ—the only internal one capable of regenerating itself—and researchers in Switzerland have come up with an invention almost as impressive. A machine they've been working on since 2015 keeps livers alive outside the human body for up to a week, instead of...

Her Baby Needed a Transplant, but Mom Had HIV

Doctors took the risk—and it worked

(Newser) - Doctors in South Africa had a wrenching dilemma: A baby in desperate need of a liver had been on the organ-donor waiting list for 181 days and wouldn't live much longer. The child's mother pleaded with doctors to take a portion of her own liver for a transplant,...

'Healthy' Organ Donor Kills 3 in 'Extraordinary' Case

Tests just couldn't find the cancer cells, report says

(Newser) - All four of them received organs from an apparently cancer-free donor, and three of them died—of cancer. In what researchers are calling an "extraordinary case," four organ-recipients from a 53-year-old stroke victim all developed breast cancer, LiveScience reports. A new report says the donor died in 2007,...

Guy Offers Truck, Kidney in Return for Help for Sick Wife

He says she desperately needs a new liver

(Newser) - A California man desperate to save his wife's life made an unusual offer: his truck, his trailer, and one of his kidneys in return for a slice of healthy liver from somebody with O-positive or O-negative blood. In a Facebook post that went viral, Verlon Robinson, 55, said he...

Twins Shared a Liver Disease. Why Only One Was Saved

Mom blames shortage of organs, which forced the boys to get sicker before being put on list

(Newser) - Margi Coats knew her son was dying. "I stayed awake holding his hand all night with my heart pounding, waiting for him to take his last breath," she says of 18-year-old Nick's final hours. "It's the most frightening thing in the world for a mother....

British Surgeon Branded Initials on Transplant Livers

Simon Bramhall has pleaded guilty to assault

(Newser) - When you're an artist, it's considered customary to sign your work. When you're a surgeon, it's considered bizarre and illegal. Renowned British surgeon Simon Bramhall, who branded his initials on the livers of at least two transplant patients in 2013, pleaded guilty to assault Wednesday, the...

Liver Transplant Pioneer Dies
Liver Transplant Pioneer Dies
OBITUARY

Liver Transplant Pioneer Dies

Dr. Thomas Starzl was 90

(Newser) - Dr. Thomas Starzl, the pioneer of liver transplantation and driving force behind the world's first baboon-to-human liver transplants and research on anti-rejection drugs, has died. He was 90. The University of Pittsburgh said the renowned doctor died Saturday at home in Pittsburgh, reports the AP . Starzl performed the world'...

Baby Goes on Transplant List at 10:15. At 10:55, a Match

Daniel McCabe gets a life-saving liver almost immediately

(Newser) - Daniel McCabe is just 5 months old, but he's been fighting a rare liver disorder since he was born. On Dec. 13, things had become so dire that doctors placed him on the waiting list for a new liver and prepared to wait weeks, if not months, with his...

Mexican Needing Transplant Twice Denied a Visa

Jose Chua Lopez, 20, has an appointment at the Mayo Clinic in 9 days

(Newser) - Family and friends sold tamales and held raffles to raise upward of $15,000 to send Jose Chua Lopez to the Mayo Clinic for an urgently needed heart and liver transplant. But the 20-year-old Mexican born with a heart defect has twice been turned down for a US visa, and...

Tim Cook Offered Steve Jobs Part of His Liver

But Jobs staunchly refused: new book

(Newser) - As Steve Jobs got sicker, in need of a liver transplant, the man who would replace him at Apple—Tim Cook—offered up part of his own liver. The story comes via Fast Company 's excerpt of Becoming Steve Jobs , a biography by Brent Schlender and Fast Company Executive...

Stealth Threat to Your Liver: Diet Aids

Responsible for 20% of liver injuries in hospitals

(Newser) - The New York Times takes a look at the unregulated dietary supplement industry, and finds some scary conclusions: Dietary aids are responsible for 20% of drug-induced liver injuries in hospitals—up from 7% a decade ago—and that figure only includes the most severe cases. While most patients recover, some...

Lou Reed Dead at 71
 Lou Reed 
 Dead at 71 


OBITUARY

Lou Reed Dead at 71

Velvet Underground veteran had liver transplant in May

(Newser) - Iconic rocker Lou Reed has died today at the age of 71, reports Rolling Stone in a lengthy obituary celebrating the "massively influential songwriter and guitarist who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music." No cause of death was immediately released, but Reed underwent a life-saving liver...

Rocker Lou Reed Has Liver Transplant

71-year-old recuperating nicely, says his wife

(Newser) - Lou Reed is recovering from a liver transplant, his wife tells the Times of London. The 71-year-old had the surgery several weeks ago at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, says Laurie Anderson, herself a performance artist. "It's as serious as it gets," she tells the newspaper. "...

Baby Boomer? Feds Say Get Tested for Hepatitis C

Disease can lurk in the body for decades

(Newser) - An epidemic of hepatitis C is afflicting the baby boomer generation, and federal authorities will roll out a campaign this year urging everyone born between 1945 and 1965 to get tested, reports the Los Angeles Times . Roughly 75% of the estimated 3.2 million people infected are boomers, many of...

Jobs' Cancer Ran Predictable Course: Doctors

Those with neuroendocrine tumors typically die within 6 to 8 years, say experts

(Newser) - The rare form of pancreatic cancer that killed Steve Jobs ran a predictable course, experts tell the Wall Street Journal . While 80% of the 40,000 Americans who get pancreatic cancer annually die within a year of their diagnosis, Jobs had a neuroendocrine pancreatic tumor, a type that accounts for...

Should We Lift Ban on HIV-Positive Organ Donors?

Organs would primarily be used for HIV-positive recipients, say proponents

(Newser) - The US has, as one doctor says, a "huge organ shortage"—but there is one way we could make 500 to 600 more livers and kidneys available each year: lift the ban on HIV-positive donors. A controversial move, yes, but some federal health officials and other experts think...

2nd Arizona Patient Booted From Transplant List Dies

Some 100 residents removed from list after funding is cut

(Newser) - The latest casualty of Arizona's budget cuts is, tragically, a true casualty: A patient unable to get a liver transplant "most likely" due to the defunding of the procedure has died, reports the Arizona Daily Star . A rep for the University of Arizona Surgery Department says the patient was...

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