organ transplants

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Height That Helped His NBA Career Now Threatens His Life

Ex-Pacer Scot Pollard, who was also on 'Survivor,' awaits heart transplant from a patient his size

(Newser) - At 6-foot-11, Scot Pollard's size helped him play more than a decade in the NBA, earning him a championship ring with the 2008 Boston Celtics. Now it may be killing him. Pollard needs a heart transplant, an already dire predicament that's made more difficult by the fact so...

His Whole-Eye Transplant Is a World First

Aaron James of Arkansas also got a partial face transplant at the same time

(Newser) - Surgeons have performed the world's first transplant of an entire human eye, an extraordinary addition to a face transplant—although it's far too soon to know if the man will ever see through his new left eye, per the AP . An accident with high-voltage power lines had destroyed...

'How Am I Talking to Someone Who Has a Pig Heart?'

Navy vet Lawrence Faucette, 58, has transplant in Maryland, only the 2nd living patient to do so

(Newser) - Surgeons have transplanted a pig's heart into a dying man in a bid to prolong his life—only the second patient to ever undergo such an experimental feat. Two days after the Wednesday procedure , the man was cracking jokes and able to sit in a chair, Maryland doctors said...

Pig Kidney Has Been Working in a Human for 32 Days

The patient in question is brain-dead

(Newser) - Maurice Miller is brain-dead, but the 57-year-old is being kept alive so doctors at NYU Langone Health in New York City can study his kidney—which was transplanted from a pig. The organ has been producing urine and filtering toxins since July 14, meaning 32 days. That's far longer...

This Heart's Record Trip May Be Game-Changer for Transplants

Organ was transported 2.5K miles for transplant from Alaska to Boston, thanks to a special cooler

(Newser) - When it comes to heart transplants, doctors don't want to see more than four to six hours pass from the time the organ is taken out of one body and moved into another. But one heart recently spent more than seven hours in transit, and traveled more than 2,...

A Dying Transplant Recipient Explains the 'Gratitude Paradox'

Amy Silverstein is grateful for her donated hearts but laments 'sorry state of transplant medicine'

(Newser) - Amy Silverstein learned last month that she has incurable cancer. Now, in a New York Times essay, the author of Sick Girl says goodbye to her heart. Which is to say, she says goodbye to the heart beating within her that she received in a transplant. It was actually her...

US Has One Organ Transplant Overseer. That Could Change

The Biden administration looks to take power out of UNOS' hands

(Newser) - Just one entity has been at the reins of the US transplant system for nearly 40 years, a fact the Biden administration is gunning to change. The government on Wednesday proposed breaking up the contract to oversee organ transplantation, which would take the sole responsibility for doing so out of...

State Lawmakers Propose Cutting Sentences If Inmates Donate Organs

Critics call Massachusetts bill an ethical disaster

(Newser) - With more than 100,000 Americans on waiting lists for transplant organs and more than 2 million inmates in American prisons, an unusual proposal in Massachusetts might be closely watched by other states. Democratic state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would give inmates time off their sentences for donating...

Police 'Santa Claus' Uses Lamborghini to Deliver Organs

Automaker donated supercar to Italian police

(Newser) - Two transplant patients in Italy received what police call a "Christmas present"—delivered not by sleigh, but by Lamborghini. State police in Bologna used an adapted Lamborghini Huracan supercar donated by the automaker to deliver kidneys to two hospitals hundreds of miles apart this week, AFP reports. The...

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...

Transplant Milestone Comes Amid Fierce Criticism

US logs its millionth organ transplant amid calls for improvement to national system

(Newser) - The US counted its millionth organ transplant on Friday, a milestone that comes at a critical time for Americans still desperately waiting for that chance at survival. It took decades from the first success—a kidney in 1954—to transplant 1 million organs, and officials can't reveal if this...

Researchers Partially Reverse Death in Pig Organs

OrganEx technology could change the medical definition of death

(Newser) - Yale University researchers have come up with an apparent cure for death, at least in pig organs. In research published in the journal Nature , researchers said their OrganEx system, which uses a network of pumps, filter, and tubing, restored circulation and repaired damaged cells in pigs that had been dead...

Man Who Got Pig Heart Didn't Die From Rejection

Doctors say procedure should be considered a success

(Newser) - Maryland man David Bennett lived for only two months after he received a pig's heart —but doctors say the first-of-its-kind procedure counts as a success. Doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine say they determined that 57-year-old David Bennett died from heart failure but his body...

Man Set to Die in 8 Days Wants to Donate Kidney First

Lawyers for Ramiro Gonzales request that his execution be delayed

(Newser) - Ramiro Gonzales is scheduled to be put to death in Texas this month, but he's asking to push that date out so that he has time to first donate a kidney. The Guardian reports the 39-year-old shot and killed 18-year-old Bridget Townsend in 2001 and has been on death...

Teen's 'Lifesaving' Transplant Hinges on Parents' Vax Stance

They argue hospital vaccination requirement violates their religious beliefs

(Newser) - Parents of a Michigan teen are asking a judge to overturn a hospital's requirement that their daughter be vaccinated against COVID-19 before receiving a "lifesaving" kidney transplant. The 17-year-old girl known by her initials "AC," has only one kidney, stage-three chronic kidney disease, and end-stage renal...

Pig Virus 'Hitched a Ride' Into Man Who Got Pig's Heart

Doctors say virus may have caused David Bennett's death 2 months after transplant

(Newser) - The first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig may have also been the first person to be killed by porcine cytomegalovirus—a virus normally only found in pigs that was detected in patient David Bennett 20 days after the transplant. The surgeon who performed the groundbreaking procedure,...

Pregnancy Almost Doubles Risk of Breakthrough COVID
A 'Striking' COVID Finding
Related to Pregnancy
NEW STUDY

A 'Striking' COVID Finding Related to Pregnancy

Pregnant people at higher risk of breakthrough COVID than organ transplant recipients

(Newser) - Pregnant people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 have a higher risk of breakthrough infection than vaccinated organ transplant recipients and those with weakened immune systems, new research suggests. It's a "striking" finding as the immunocompromised have taken precedence in the rollout of a fourth vaccine shot, reports...

Man Who Received First Pig Heart Transplant Has Died

David Bennett, 57, made it 2 months with the heart

(Newser) - The first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig has died, two months after the groundbreaking experiment , the Maryland hospital that performed the surgery announced Wednesday. David Bennett, 57, died Tuesday at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Doctors didn't give an exact cause of death, saying...

Transplant From Deceased COVID Patient Was a Success

Kidney was taken from 30-year-old woman who died from COVID complications

(Newser) - Surgeons say they have successfully transplanted an organ from a patient who died from COVID-19 complications, potentially opening the door to many more such transplants. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers, writing in the American Journal of Transplantation , say a kidney was taken from a 30-year-old woman who died...

Anti-Vax Dad 'Has Gone to the Edge of Death to Stick to His Guns'

DJ Ferguson won't get COVID-19 vaccine in exchange for heart transplant

(Newser) - A 31-year-old father of two with a third child on the way is in need of a heart transplant, but he won't get it because he refuses to be vaccinated against COVID-19, his father tells CBS Boston . David Ferguson tells the outlet that his son, DJ Ferguson, "has...

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