organ transplants

A transplanted pig kidney offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis

5:00am December 17, 2024

The patient was in kidney failure and her immune system would reject a human organ. Scientists hope genetically modified pig organs prove safe and will alleviate the organ shortage and save lives.

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Health & Safety

Doctors try a controversial technique to reduce the transplant organ shortage

7:37pm July 08, 2024

by Rob Stein

Doctors say they can boost the odds donated organs will be usable by restarting blood circulation with a pump after donors are declared dead. Critics say the procedure blurs the definition of death.

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Dr. Jeffrey Stern, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, prepare the gene-edited pig kidney with thymus for transplantation.

A woman with failing kidneys receives genetically modified pig organs

3:30pm April 24, 2024

by Rob Stein

Surgeons transplanted a kidney and thymus gland from a gene-edited pig into a 54-year-old woman in an attempt to extend her life. It's the latest experimental use of animal organs in humans.

A young, genetically modified pig raised at a Revivicor farm for organ transplantation research.

How genetically modified pigs could end the shortage of organs for transplants

10:35pm February 29, 2024

by Rob Stein

Scientists are optimistic that gene-edited animals could provide a new source of organs for transplantation. Pig organs modified to minimize rejection are now being tested in humans.

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Mayra Ramirez received a double lung transplant after COVID-19 caused irreversible damage to her lungs.

Health & Safety

'She Was So Sick': From COVID-19 Diagnosis To A Double Lung Transplant

11:42am August 17, 2020

by Christine Herman

After six weeks on a ventilator, she was dying of COVID-19. But doctors took a gamble and gave Mayra Ramirez a double lung transplant. Now she shares what it's like to come back from the brink.

The presence of the hepatitis C virus in donated hearts and organs for transplantation wasn't an impediment for a successful result for recipients.

Health & Safety

Hepatitis C Not A Barrier For Organ Transplantation, Study Finds

8:52pm April 03, 2019

by Richard Harris

Researchers found that antiviral drugs are effective in preventing transmission of the hepatitis C virus from donated hearts and lungs to recipients. The result could help reduce organ wait times.

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The Johns Hopkins surgical team (left to right) Richard Redett, Trinity Bivalacqua, Brandacher Gerald, Arthur "Bud" Burnett and Andrew Lee.

Health & Safety

Veteran Receives Penis Transplant To Repair War Wound

8:17pm April 23, 2018

by Richard Harris

Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital say 11 surgeons were involved in the 14-hour surgery in March. The patient, who requested anonymity, is expected to be released from the hospital this week

In this 1989 photograph, Thomas Starzl oversees a liver transplant operation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Starzl won a National Medal of Science in 2004.

Thomas Starzl, Trailblazer In Organ Transplantation, Dies At 90

3:38pm March 05, 2017

by Colin Dwyer

The doctor, who performed the world's first liver transplant surgery in 1963, eventually earned the moniker "father of transplantation."

Cyclosporine is one of the drugs that organ transplant patients take so the body won't reject the organ.

Medicare Pays For A Kidney Transplant, But Not The Drugs To Keep It Viable

11:13am December 22, 2016

by Richard Harris

The federal government pays for kidney transplants. But the program only pays for essential anti-rejection drugs for three years. Many people can't afford them and can end up losing the kidney.

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Percentage of organs donated by overdose donors

Organ Donations Spike In The Wake Of The Opioid Epidemic

4:38pm October 14, 2016

by Martha Bebinger

So far this year, more than 1 in 4 donations in New England are from people who died after a drug overdose — a much higher rate than in the U.S. overall, though it's not clear why.

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