Free Republic

Physicians and researchers conducted a study of patients over the age of 70 with a type of liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and how the outcomes of ablative treatments compare to liver transplants. Hepatocellular carcinoma is a cancer that starts in the liver, and when found early enough, can be treated with different therapies. The optimal therapy for these early stage HCC's is liver transplantation. Unfortunately, the need for donated livers far exceeds the demand. Numerous factors are considered when any patient is being considered for a liver transplant. Surgical data has shown that older patients have poorer outcomes...

Doctors in New York City have performed the first ever heart transplant from a person who is HIV positive. An unnamed woman in her 60s who was suffering from advanced heart failure received both a heart and kidney transplant from the same HIV-positive donor in spring, doctors at Montefiore Health in the Bronx, New York City, announced this week. The woman also had HIV herself. Organ transplants from HIV positive donors had been banned in the U.S. until 2013. Now, they are allowed under the context of research, finding how a body will respond to the new organs. With over...

A man who underwent the world's first double arm and shoulder transplant 16 months ago has made a miraculous recovery and is now able to work out at the gym and hug his grandchildren. Felix Gretarsson, 49, from Lyon, France was forced to have his arms amputated after he was electrocuted at work in 1998 in Kópavogur, Iceland. After decades without them, the Icelandic native managed to convince a surgeon to perform a double arm and shoulder transplant in a gruelling 15 hour surgery in January 2021. The grandfather has shocked surgeons with his incredible progress, and is now able...

Scientists have momentarily restored a faint twinkle of life to dying cells in the human eye. In order to better understand the way nerve cells succumb to a lack of oxygen, a team of US researchers measured activity in mouse and human retinal cells soon after their death. Amazingly, with a few tweaks to the tissue's environment, they were able to revive the cells' ability to communicate hours later. When stimulated by light, the postmortem retinas were shown to emit specific electrical signals, known as b-waves. These waves are also seen in living retinas, and they indicate communication between all...

David Bennett died on Tuesday after his condition began to deteriorate several days ago, the medical center said. He was given palliative care and was able to communicate with his family during his final hours, according to the news release. Bennett had terminal heart disease, and had received a transplant on January 7. Bennett was deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant or an artificial heart pump after reviews of his medical records, and the pig heart was the only available option, the medical center said at the time. Revivicor, a regenerative medicine company based in Virginia, had provided the...

The U.S. transplant system needs an overhaul to stop wasting organs and give more patients a fair chance at the life-saving surgery, says an influential scientific advisory panel that set a five-year deadline to turn things around. More than 106,000 patients are on the nation’s list for a transplant from a deceased donor, and at least 17 die every day waiting. Many more who could benefit from a transplant never get put on the waiting list, particularly people of color, the report stressed. “While the transplant system does a lot of good things and saves a lot of lives, it...

Jason Wilson has had kidney failure since he was 10 years oldA South Carolina man has been declared inactive on a kidney transplant list after he said he has no plans to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Jason Wilson has had kidney failure since he was 10 years old. Advertisement For a while, his condition improved, he said. But about two years ago, he began dialysis and was placed on Medical University of South Carolina Health's list for a kidney transplant. It was on Nov. 1 that he got a letter from the health system that said he would be moved...

BURKE COUNTY, N.C. — A Burke County man’s decision not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine means he also won’t be getting a much-needed kidney transplant. Chad Carswell, a double amputee who has undergone several major surgeries on his heart, now faces a different battle. Carswell told Channel 9′s Dave Faherty his kidney is only operating at about 4%…. …. In a statement to Channel 9, the hospital said the policy is in place to provide protection for the patient, because transplant patients are at high risk for severe illness if they don’t have pre-existing immunity. “Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s...

UAB announces first clinical-grade transplant of gene-edited pig kidneys into brain-dead human. The study was designed and conducted to meet standards directly comparable to those that would apply to a Phase I clinical trial and mirrored — as much as possible — every step of a conventional transplant between humans. The University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine announces today the first peer-reviewed research outlining the successful transplant of genetically modified, clinical-grade pig kidneys into a brain-dead human individual, replacing the recipient’s native kidneys. These positive results demonstrate how xenotransplantation could address the worldwide organ shortage...

Doctors in Baltimore have transplanted a genetically-modified pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life, in a medical first. Three days later, David Bennett, 57, is said to be recovering and doing well after the nine-hour procedure. Experts say it is too soon to know if the operation really will work, but it marks a step forward in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Bennett is breathing on his own without a ventilator, but is still using a Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine that helps pump blood throughout his...

A man is doing well after the first successful transplant of a pig heart into a human body, possibly opening a new path for those facing an overburdened donor system, according to the University of Maryland. The Food and Drug Administration on New Year’s Eve gave emergency authorization for David Bennett, 57, to receive a genetically modified pig heart, the University of Maryland Medical Center said. Bennett, who had been deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant, had been hospitalized for six weeks with a life-threatening arrhythmia and was connected to a heart-lung bypass machine. Dr. Bartley Griffith, the operating...

A Maryland man is doing well after surgeons and clinicians from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center performed the first successful transplant of a genetically modified pig’s heart Friday to save his life, officials from the health system said Monday. After being diagnosed with terminal heart disease, the patient, 57-year-old David Bennett, had been deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center and other transplant centers around the country. Doctors will monitor him in the hospital over the next several weeks or months to ensure that...

A second woman in less than a month has been denied the opportunity to have a life-saving organ transplant simply because she won't get vaccinated against COVID. Leilani Lutali, 56, from Colorado has been denied the chance to have a kidney transplant after the hospital that would have been performing the operation refused to treat her because she hadn't had the coronavirus vaccine. Lutali who has stage 5 kidney disease, desperately needs transplant to save her life but in September, Colorado health system UC Health took her off its organ donation list despite the fact she already had a donor...

Surgeons at a New York City hospital have successfully attached a pig’s kidney to a person, whose immune system didn’t immediately reject the organ — a ground-breaking procedure that may one day lead to the use of animals in life-saving transplants. The recipient at NYU Langone Health was a brain-dead woman who received the kidney of a pig whose genes had been altered so its tissues no longer harbored a molecule known to trigger almost immediate rejection, according to Reuters. The family of the patient — who showed signs of kidney dysfunction — consented to the experiment before she was...

"Here I am, willing to be a direct donor to her. It does not affect any other patient on the transplant list,"*Jaimee Fougner, Leilani Lutali’s kidney donor, told CBS4. "How can I sit here and allow them to murder my friend when I’ve got a perfectly good kidney and can save her life?" Lutali said she received a letter from Colorado health system UCHealth at the end of September explaining that she and Fougner have 30 days to begin the vaccine process. They would be removed from the kidney transplant list if they refuse the shots.*

The Kirschbaum family of Beit Shemesh have had a horrific whirlwind of a week, as they sat shiva for their teenage son, one of the 45 people killed in the Meron tragedy. While this is enough to have them processing for years, however, they simply don’t have the time. Because right now, they are worried about their 6-year-old Michali. Michali has had liver cancer since she was a baby and has spent much of her life in hospitals. Recently doctors urged the Kirschbaums to leave Israel immediately and to fly to Pittsburgh for their daughter to have a full liver...

The moment many transplant patients and physicians have been waiting for has finally arrived, but unfortunately the news is not great. We have now published in JAMA second-dose data from our national study of vaccine immune responses in immunosuppressed solid organ transplant recipients. Among 658 COVID-19-naïve participants who received the full two-dose series of mRNA vaccines, 46% (compared to 83% after just one dose) still had no detectable antibodies, and even among those with detectable antibodies, the levels were still somewhat low. The situation is worse among those taking anti-metabolites: for this group, 57% had no antibodies after full vaccination,...

Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston are seeking approval to perform a first-of-its-kind surgery to attach the penis of a dead man onto a woman who identifies as transgender. The operation, which hasn't yet been approved, would involve attaching an organ donor's penis to the groin of a biological female. The surgeons are also waiting for a volunteer to be the first test patient. Federal donor regulations prohibit vascularized composite allografts — tissue harvesting in organ donation of specific body parts such as limbs and genitalia — unless the donor wishes to donate and permission has also been given...

I am trying to get the prayer chains going again... For those of you unfamiliar with Jaxson's journey, We have had some previous prayer threads for him over the past few years... Here are links to them to give you some background on Jaxson's condition if you don't know it. July '16October '16February '18March '18 My Daughter, Katie, had a page that has his history on it up to about May '18 here Jaxson's got guts until she stopped updating there and moved it to Facebook... I don't think she has done much updating anything since she started school and...

Sergio Canavero, of Italy, and Xiaoping Ren, of China, published two studies on Wednesday In the studies, they claim to cure 'irreversible' spinal cord injuries in monkeys and dogs The papers were published in the peer-reviewed US journal Surgical Neurology International Describing their findings as 'unprecedented', Canavero and Ren say this shows they are ready to conduct human trials =========================================================================== The surgeons aspiring to perform the world's first human head transplant claim they have made indisputable progress towards their controversial goal. Sergio Canavero, of Italy, and Xiaoping Ren, of China, published two studies on Wednesday in which they claim to...