Researchers Take First Step in Engineering Artificial Kidney
iStockPhoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have engineered an artificial kidney that they believe holds promise for shortening organ transplant waiting lists.According to BBC News, similar studies have created sim…
Quadruple Amputee Gets Two New Hands on Life
ABC News(NEW YORK) — It’s the simplest thing, the grasp of one hand in another. But Lindsay Ess will never see it that way, because her hands once belonged to someone else.Growing up in Texas and Virginia, Ess, 29, was always one of the pretty g…
Women Turn to Eyebrow Transplants to Improve Brow Fullness
John Slater/Digital Vision/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — When it comes to eyebrows, thin is no longer in. But if you’ve been waxing and plucking for years, you may find that your eyebrow hair just won’t grow back.Some people with that probl…
Uterus Transplant, Latest Fertility Feat, Raises Ethical Questions
Keith Brofsky/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — It seems science has a solution for every reproductive woe. Swedish doctors have successfully transplanted a uterus from mother to daughter, raising hope for women without wombs who want to carry their own babies. …
Texas Woman to Receive Nation’s First Double Arm Transplant
Keith Brofsky/Thinkstock(BOSTON) — Surgeons at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston will perform the nation’s first double arm transplant on a Texas woman, the hospital announced Wednesday.Katy Hayes, 44, a quadruple amputee and mother o…
Doctors Transplant Vein Grown from Patient’s Own Cells
Comstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Scientists in Sweden are reporting a medical first: a vein grown in a lab for a 10-year-old girl using her body’s own cells.Doctors are hailing the step as a milestone in tissue engineering, a field in which doctors gro…
Man Cured of AIDS: ‘I Feel Good’
Bananastock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The fact that Timothy Brown is a reasonably healthy 46-year-old is no small thing. Only a few years ago, he had AIDS.“I feel good,” Brown told ABC News. “I haven’t had any major il…
Surgeon: Remove Kidneys for Transplant Before Donor’s Death
Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The severe shortage of viable organs for transplantation in the U.S. has led a transplant surgeon to propose harvesting kidneys from people who are not dead yet.Dr. Paul Morrissey, an associate professor of surgery at …
Baby Saved by Smallest Artificial Heart
Alessandro Di Meo/EPA(ROME) — An artificial heart the size of a pinky finger kept a 16-month-old baby alive for nearly two weeks while he waited for a heart transplant.The Italian baby, whose name has not been released, had dilated cardiomyopathy, a d…
Sarah Hyland’s Secret Struggle With Kidney Disease
JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Haley Dunphy, the big sister on Modern Family, Dunphy appears carefree, spending hours on her cellphone and giving her parents a rough time on the show like any other teenager.But Sarah Hyland, the 21-year-ol…
Teen Double Transplant Recipient Heads Home
Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(MILWAUKEE) — A Chicago teenager is finally going home Wednesday after getting the transplant he needed to survive.When Thomas Castillo was just 15-years-old, doctors told him that he had a 50 percent chance of living. Th…
Quadruple Limb Transplant Patient Dies
Keith Brofsky/Thinkstock(LONDON) — The Turkish man who would have been the world’s first recipient of a quadruple limb transplant died Monday after doctors had to amputate the limbs because of “metabolic imbalance,” the hospital said…
Illegal Immigrant to Get New Kidney
Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(SAN FRANCISCO) — A dying California dad who was denied a kidney transplant because of his undocumented immigration status has been given a second chance at life.University of California-San Francisco has agreed to operate on …
Coach Receives Miracle Organ Transplant
Keith Brofsky/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Since he was diagnosed with cirrhosis five years ago, Ed Mooney knew that if he didn’t get a liver transplant soon he’d be in serious danger. “I probably had a million people ahead of me. My siste…
Mentally Disabled Girl May Get Kidney Transplant After All
Keith Brofsky/Thinkstock(PHILADELPHIA) — Chrissy Rivera, the mother of the 3-year-old girl who was initially told by a doctor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia that he would not recommend a kidney transplant for her mentally disabled daughter, is…
Kidney Donor Gives Organ to Stranger on a Whim
Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Celia Oyler had never been in the hospital, never had a stitch and had never even taken a prescription drug.But last June, the 55-year-old professor gave doctoral student John Young — a virtual stranger — her ki…
First U.S. Patient Gets Stem Cell Trachea Transplant
Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(ABINGDON, Md.) — Christopher Lyles, 30, of Abingdon, Md. exhausted the limited treatment options available in the U.S. for his tracheal cancer. But Lyles read about an experimental tracheal transplant procedure surgeons perfor…
Five-Second Rule? Medics Drop Heart but Transplant Proceeds
Keith Brofsky/Thinkstock(MEXICO CITY) — During a moment caught on tape that is sure to make a few cringe, medics in Mexico are seen bumbling, then dropping, a heart on the ground intended for a 20-year-old female heart recipient.Medics arrived at the …
Full Face Transplants: A Cutting Edge Closer Look
Face transplant recipient, Dallas Wiens, speaks at a press conference with Dr. Bohdan Pomahac (L) in Boston, Massachusetts in May 2011. Adam Hunger/AFP/Getty Images(BOSTON) — Surgeons lift the face off one person and transplant it onto another person….