An 8-month-old boy who received five organs in a complex transplant for a rare gastrointestinal disease is ready for the next step: learning to eat, his doctors announced last week. Elijah Moulton was born with total intestinal atresia, a malformation of the entire gastrointestinal tract that makes eating impossible. He is now doing well after [Sign in to read the full article...]

Scientists at the University of Washington and the biotechnology company Geron have used human embryonic stem cells to repair damaged heart tissue in rats that had suffered cardiac arrests, the Toronto Star reports. Their study, published in the September issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology, seems to overcome two of the most persistent and perplexing [Sign in to read the full article...]

South Africa’s minister of health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has for two straight weekends been the subject of allegations, published in The Sunday Times in Johannesburg, that she is an alcoholic, a petty criminal and a liar, the New York Times reports. One recent article contends that Dr. Tshabalala-Msimang received a liver transplant last March under false pretenses, [Sign in to read the full article...]

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing Executive Committee has removed the designation of St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles as a “Member Not in Good Standing.” In its place, St. Vincent will have probationary status until it completes a plan of correction to the satisfaction of the OPTN/UNOS Board of [Sign in to read the full article...]

Age alone doesn’t increase the risk of death among liver transplant patients age 70 or older and shouldn’t restrict liver transplantation in the elderly, according to a new study reported by HealthDay News. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles reviewed the records of 62 patients ages 70 and older and 864 patients [Sign in to read the full article...]