organ transplants news stories on Newser

Facebook's Organ Donor Push Should Go Further

John Johnson — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:54:59 CDT

Facebook did a wonderful thing when it made it easy for people to register as organ donors upon death, writes Sally Satel at Bloomberg View . The number of future donors surged, and it looks to be more than a fleeting spike. The problem is that it's not nearly enough, writes...

Organs From US Troops Save Lives in Europe

Dustin Lushing — Sat, 05 May 2012 06:26:15 CDT

Since 2006, organ donations from mortally wounded US troops have saved around 140 European lives, reports USA Today . The families of 36 American servicemembers who were declared brain dead from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan agreed to donate their hearts, kidneys, lungs, livers, and pancreases to patients in Europe. It's...

Kidney Gets Donated—Twice

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:58:05 CDT

It turns out you can recycle just about anything these days—even kidneys and other organs donated for transplants. In what is believed to be the first documented case of its kind in the US, a transplanted kidney that was failing was removed from a patient while he was still...

Study May Be Breakthrough for Transplants

John Johnson — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:44:05 CST

A new study has the potential to be what the Los Angeles Times calls a "game-changer" in organ transplants. The idea seems simple enough: Give organ recipients a second transplant—of stem cells from the donor. This not only makes it more likely their body won't reject the organ, it...

Need a Kidney? Ask on Facebook

Neal Colgrass — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:27:33 CST

People who once sought kidneys through word of mouth or church bulletins are finding a new forum: Facebook. The website has fulfilled at least three kidney requests as many more are popping up across social media sites, the AP reports. One plea came from Seattle father Damon Brown, who was...

Transplant Team Dies in Helicopter Crash

Rob Quinn — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:01:00 CST

A heart surgeon and a transplant expert from the Mayo Clinic were killed along with the pilot when their helicopter crashed in northern Florida as they raced to pick up a heart for transplant. The team was on its way from Jacksonville to Gainesville when the helicopter crashed in a...

Woman Gets New Kidney Via Craigslist

John Johnson — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:37:27 CST

An antidote to all those Craigslist-is-the-devil's-little-helper stories ( like this ): A 28-year-old woman in Florida desperate for a new kidney posted the request on the site, reports the Palm Beach Post . After a flurry of media attention, Selina Hodge ended up with more than 800 responses, including one from...

Artificial Windpipe Saves Cancer Patient

John Johnson — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:06:38 CDT

They almost make it sound easy: Surgeons in Sweden removed a man's cancerous windpipe and replaced it with an artificial one they had whipped up in the lab, reports the BBC . No more diseased windpipe, no more cancer. "He was condemned to die," says one of surgeons of the 36-year-old...

Scientists: We Can Make Pigs Grow Human Organs

Kevin Spak — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 07:53:21 CDT

Japanese researchers have hit on a stem cell breakthrough that they say could essentially solve the organ shortages problem—but fair warning, it’s weird. By injecting stem cells from rats into the embryos of mice that had been genetically modified to be unable to grow their own organs, the researchers...