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TORONTO, April 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A two month-old child at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, described in the media as "dying," has defied doctor's predictions and continued to live after the removal of a respirator. The respirator was removed in the expectation that the child would stop breathing, and that her heart could then be harvested for transplant. Her parents have expressed their disappointment that another child who is being cared for at the hospital will now not receive their daughter's heart. ~Snip~ Kaylee Wallace was born with a condition called Joubert Syndrome, which causes a malformation of the...

A leading French surgeon says he has now effectively carried out a full face transplant after two operations in the same number of weeks. Professor Laurent Lantieri, who has performed three of the world's six partial face transplants, said every feature had now been transferred.

I’d like to ask for your help. And it just might help save someone’s life. In 1991, after living with diabetes and its complications for 20 years, I was fortunate to receive a kidney and a pancreas in an organ transplant operation. Since then, I’ve tried to give back wherever I can, in the hopes that it might benefit someone in the future. I am involved in a transplant study that is trying to discover how the body reacts to transplanted organs, and how the use of immunosuppressive drugs can be minimized. But we need more patients in the study...

A Long Island man's quest to end his messy divorce took a new turn this week as he demanded his estranged wife give back the kidney he donated to her in 2001. It's a touching tale and one that has been met with ridicule from area divorce attorneys. "She ripped out his heart, but he doesn't get to rip out her kidney," says Lisa Bloom, a legal analyst for CBS' The Early Show. Calling this a publicity stunt by the scorned husband, Dr. Richard Batista, Bloom says there is absolutely no chance his soon-to-be ex-wife, Dawnell, will have to give...

Two medical breakthroughs reported last week brings very strong evidence for continue research in the stem cell research field. In one case a new airway need to be replaced and the second case knee injuries needed cartilage.

Freeper friends, I work with Zoe's great-aunt, this little girl needs a heart transplant soon.LasVegasDave Please visit the web site for more information about Zoe. I have pasted some of the daily coments about Zoe's progress.Nov 18Dr. Boyle decided not to punish Zoe for dietarys transgression. He let her have her 15cc every hour and he let her have solid food for the first time in 2 weeks. We tried french fried with no salt but they were too dry. I hit the cafeteria and found 4 of the driest pieces of cantaloupe I could find (fruit’s full of water...

A woman has been given a new section of windpipe created from her own stem cells in an operation that could revolutionise surgery. Claudia Castillo, 30, who lives in Barcelona, has become the first person to be given a whole organ tailor-made for her in laboratories across Europe. A graft from a donor was used, but because it has been imbued with Ms Castillo’s own cells, there is no sign that her body will reject the organ. Researchers and surgeons from Britain, Italy and Spain collaborated to grow tissue from Ms Castillo’s own bone marrow stem cells, using them to...

When the South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard carried out the first heart transplant in December 1967, the world held its breath. His patient, 53-year-old Lewis Washkansky, lived for only another 18 days. The drugs he needed to stop his body rejecting the new organ compromised his immune system to such an extent he couldn’t fight off other illnesses, and he died of pneumonia. But the precedent had been set: the most powerful and emotionally iconic of human organs could be taken from the body of a dead person to give the chance of an extended life to another. It was...

THE world's only transplant recipient of two full arms has spoken of his "indescribable feeling of being a whole man again".

  Infertility fear: Emma Smith, 37, with her son Oliver   Baby boy for woman in double transplantSophie Goodchild and Anna Davis 10.10.08 A woman who had a double organ transplant has defied the odds to become a mother, the Standard can reveal today.Emma Smith, 37, feared she may be infertile because of the side-effects of her anti-rejection drugs.But last week, the former secretary from Hitchin in Hertfordshire gave birth without complications to her first child 6lb baby Oliver.She is the first woman in Britain to deliver a child by Caesarean section after receiving donor kidneys and a pancreas.Her...

Fresh off his tour of heart clinics throughout America, Barak Obama has announced his intention to perform a heart transplant at Johns Hopkins within days. "I have seen the clinics, I've spoken to doctors, nurses, and assistants, and my skill with scalpel and suction has now been tried and tested through careful observation." "I also remind you that for 143 days I was intimately involved in the health care debate in the Senate and for another year on the campaign trail." "What more experience could anyone demand?" asked an incredulous Obama. My heart surgery tour should put to rest any...

For Marisa Hester, a Pentecostal Christian from Prattville, Ala., choosing an outfit for an ultra-Orthodox Crown Heights wedding wasn’t easy. Sorting through her two sets of formalwear, she eventually opted for a knee-length floral skirt and a high-necked black chiffon blouse, embellished with sparkling beads. She worried, however, that her slightly sheer sleeves were too revealing and would insult her newfound family. But at the June 24 wedding, the bride and her relatives could not have been less offended. A year ago, Hester, 26, gave an invaluable gift to the bride’s father, Hershey Fellig, 47, whose struggle she had read...

Patients awaiting organ transplants should decide in advance whether they’re willing to take substandard kidneys, livers and other organs, including those at risk for infectious diseases such as HIV or hepatitis C.

(edit)Kelly, 61, who is also a retired Marine sergeant, was immediately tested to see if he was a match, and as luck would have it, he was.“It was really admirable to see these two men who had defied fear in battle and situations of severe adversity to come together,” Molmenti told FOXNews.com. “Now they’re fighting the biggest fight of their whole lives and they're helping each other with this precious gift.” (edit)

Yesterday, the Mail told the extraordinary story of how a heart transplant recipient in America committed suicide - just like the man whose heart he had received 12 years previously. In another extraordinary twist, it emerged that the recipient had also married the donor's former wife. So can elements of a person's character - or even their soul - be transplanted along with a heart? One woman who believes this to be the case is CLAIRE SYLVIA, a divorced mother of one. She was 47 and dying from a disease called primary pulmonary hypertension when, in 1988, she had a...

As some of you know, I haven't been as active here lately due to an ongoing illness. I have kidney failure due to Polycystic Kidney Disease (an inherited disease), and have been on dialysis since August (and on the transplant list since July 2005). Fortunately, I've still been able to work, but I didn't have much energy left to Freep and do other things I've enjoyed in the past. I got a call today from the transplant department telling me that there is a kidney available. So, I'll be going in tomorrow to get a kidney transplant. Of course, it's...

I have just received word that my niece is in the hospital and in very, very, very bad health. Her liver has failed and her kidneys are now failing. She is on the transplant list, but without a new liver she won’t be leaving the hospital. Please join with me in lifting her up to God for His healing and blessing, asking for a new liver for her. Prayers for her family are also appreciated.

(CBS) Fifteen-year-old Alex Koehne died suddenly last year from what doctors thought was Meningitis. "He said, 'Mommy, am I going to die?', and I said, 'No baby, they're going to make you all better,' his mother, Lisa Koehne remembers. CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes reports his devastated parents took some solace in knowing that his death would give others new life. His mother says organ donation is very important to the family. "Alex always knew what he wanted." Alex's liver went to a 52-year-old man. His pancreas to a 36-year-old woman. His kidneys went to two different men, one 46...

A woman claims to have undergone a complete "personality transplant" after receiving a new kidney. Cheryl Johnson, 37, says she has changed completely since receiving the organ in May. She believes that she must have picked up her new characteristics from the donor, a 59-year-old man who died from an aneurysm. Now, not only has her personality changed, the single mother also claims that her tastes in literature have taken a dramatic turn. Whereas she only used to read low-brow novels, Dostoevsky has become her author of choice since the transplant. Miss Johnson, from Penwortham, in Preston, Lancs, said: "You...

A 15-year-old Australian liver transplant patient has defied modern medicine by taking on her donor's immune system. Demi-Lee Brennan had a liver transplant after she suffered liver failure. Nine months later, doctors at Sydney's Westmead Children's Hospital were amazed to find the teenager's blood group had changed to the donor's blood type. Further tests revealed the stem cells from the donor liver had penetrated her bone marrow. Dr Michael Stormon says he and his colleagues were even more surprised when they found the girl's immune system had almost totally been replaced by that of the donor, meaning she no longer...