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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: organ donor

organ donor stories: 20 news summaries

OPINION

Live Kidney Donors Should Be Encouraged, Not Doubted

Activist seeking organ gets help from friends

(Newser) - When Frances Kissling learned she needed a kidney transplant, she took a step most people in her situation never do: She asked dozens of friends and colleagues if they would be willing to donate. "I was bowled over by how people responded," the Catholic feminist activist writes for... More »

 Richardson Lives on 
 Through Donated Organs 

Plus, Redgrave signs on for new film

(Newser) - Natasha Richardson’s death had the tiniest sliver of a silver lining: Her family donated her organs, the New York Post reports. “Doctors spent six hours harvesting all her organs. Some patient is going to wake up in the recovery room and start reciting Shakespeare,” said a source.... More »




 Man Finds Kidney 
 Donor—on Craigslist 

Normal wait would have been 6 years

(Newser) - Daniel Flood may owe his life to Craigslist—and his three tech-savvy daughters who posted a plea for a kidney on the classifieds site. After his lone kidney was damaged, Flood faced years of waiting for a donor matching his rare blood type. His daughters sifted through more than 100... More »

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 Docs Detail 
 Near-Total 
 Face Transplant 



Unnamed patient now has 'face to face the world:' surgeon

(Newser) - Cleveland Clinic officials say the woman who underwent the most comprehensive face transplant yet exhausted conventional options before agreeing to the risky 22-hour procedure in which 80% of her face was replaced with a cadaver’s. The unnamed patient lacked a nose or palate and couldn’t eat or breathe... More »

Blood-Cell Mix Could Help in Transplants

Combining recipient, donor blood can halt rejection process

(Newser) - Scientists have found a technique that could eliminate the need for transplant patients to endure a regimen of powerful and side-effect-inducing anti-rejection drugs, the BBC reports. By mixing the patient's infection-fighting white blood cells with modified cells from the organ donor, the rejection process can be halted. More »

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medicine organ donor transplant drug cocktail white blood cells

 Racial 'Transplant Gap' Persists 

Blacks more prone to kidney disease, get just 19% of transplants; many factors at play

(Newser) - Financial struggles and difficulty finding donors—as well as an unclear “transplant gap”—make African Americans less likely to get kidney transplants than whites, the Chicago Tribune reports. Many remain on dialysis, making daily life harder and increasing the risk of death. “You can explain most of... More »

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health care organ donor kidney kidney transplant African-Americans dialysis

 Docs Pull Off 6-Kidney Swap 

Johns Hopkins' 13-hour 'domino' session goes off without a hitch

(Newser) - In a procedure that took 13 hours and involved more than 100 medical personnel, Johns Hopkins Hospital pulled off the US' first six-way kidney transplant, the Baltimore Sun reports. Six donors provided six patients with working organs in Saturday's so-called "domino" procedure. All 12 were listed in good condition... More »

Tragic Bond Links Heart Donor, Recipient

Men married same woman, committed suicide 12 years apart

(Newser) - A Georgia man who took his own life last week had lived 12 years after receiving a transplanted heart from a South Carolina man who also committed suicide, police said. And in a twist worthy of Edgar Allan Poe, the donor's widow had met and married the recipient, the Hilton... More »

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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,... More »

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... More »

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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... More »

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Kidney Swap Might Abate Organ Shortage

Incompatible donor-
recipient pairs find matches in strangers

(Newser) - One woman desperately needs a kidney transplant; her husband wants to donate but is incompatible. Across the country, the same scenario. But the healthy spouses match the unhealthy spouse in the other couple and make a reciprocated donation to a stranger. About 230 such swaps have taken place since 2000,... More »

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Poor Pakistanis Sell Kidneys to Rich Foreigners

Organ sales are still legal in Pakistan; prices are as low as $1,700

(Newser) - In the village of Sultanpur More, Pakistan, hundreds of people have long purple scars in their sides from selling their kidneys—for as little as $1,700—to pay off debts and to make dowry payments, the Chicago Tribune reports.  There are only a few countries that don't prohibit... More »

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Transplant Doc Accused of Quickening Patient's Death

Organ-donation controversy erupts

(Newser) - A San Francisco surgeon is facing unprecedented felony charges of accelerating the death of a 25-year-old disabled man to harvest his organs for transplant. The doctor denies the charges that he acted without a legitimate medical purpose, the LA Times reports, but the controversy is bad news for transplant doctors... More »

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organ harvesting medical malpractice organ donor patient transplant disability doctor Hootan Roozrokh Ruben Navarro surgeon

UK's Top Doc Calls for Organ Donation to Be Default Option

Says it's the only way
to meet demand

(Newser) - The UK's chief doctor is calling for everyone who doesn't specify otherwise to be automatically considered an organ donor. Sir Liam Donaldson says not only does the UK face a severe shortage of donated organs, as do other countries, but 70% say they want to donate and only 20% end... More »

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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... More »

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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... More »

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Kidney Sales Brisk On India's Black Market

Desperate tsunami survivors
sacrificing their kidneys, getting ripped off by doctors and dealers

(Newser) - Women impoverished by the catastrophic tsunami of 2004 are selling their kidneys on India's lucrative black market in ever increasing numbers. Wired reports on an international organ-donor scandal in which desperate donors are often ripped off by unscrupulous doctors and dealers who take the organs and keep the money. More »

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Docs Accused Of Hurrying Death To Harvest Organs

"They were waiting like vultures,"
the patient's sister said

(Newser) - A 47-year-old man was wrongly declared brain dead by two doctors apparently eager to harvest his organs, reports the LA Times. "They were waiting like vultures, so they could scoop them up," says the patient’s daughter, Melanie Sanchez. A third doctor determined that her father, who had... More »

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States Rewrite Organ-Donation Laws

New revision would make it easier to obtain organs

(Newser) - Doctors will be able to take organs from potential donors in more sticky situations, under revisions to state laws on the boards in more than 24 states. Model legislation that's already passed in four states clarifies how to handle ethically complex decisions, helping to alleviate the chronic shortage of kidneys... More »

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20 Stories