Why were more than 2,600 kidneys recovered from deceased donors and discarded last year while 4,720 people in the U.S. died awaiting kidney transplants? According to a story last month in the New York Times, a significant number of discarded kidneys-maybe as many as half-could be transplanted if the system for allocating them was more….
Continue ReadingTransplants
Patient Receives New Windpipe Created in a Lab
Cancer of the trachea–or windpipe–is extremely rare, representing only 1% of all cancers. One patient, who had been diagnosed in 2008, had undergone chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, but his tumors were threatening to block his windpipe when technology came to the rescue last month. The first-ever synthetic windpipe was transplanted on June 9, and last….
Continue ReadingKidney transplanted into the wrong patient — luckily without apparent harm
After transplanting a kidney into the wrong patient, the University of Southern California University Hospital has shut down its kidney transplant program pending an investigation. While this may be a unique event at USC, mixups in transplants unfortunately pop up around the country on a regular basis, because of the lack of rigorous safeguards to….
Continue ReadingThe Red Cross: A Safe Source of Blood?
The American Red Cross collects and gives out about 43 percent of the blood given to medical patients in this country, which is why it may be unnerving to learn that the organization has not been following federal quality-control standards. From the article: The F.D.A. found shortcomings in the way the Red Cross screens donors….
Continue Reading