The swine flu pandemic is creating unexpected problems for the nation’s blood supply—shrinking the number of blood donors and raising questions about whether the flu can be spread through a transfusion, the Wall St. Journal reports. A number of blood centers are reporting an unusual drop in collections because too many potential donors are sick [Sign in to read the full article...]
Texas Children’s Hospital is the nation’s first pediatric hospital to discharge a pediatric patient while on an intracorporeal ventricular assist device (VAD), a feat previously accomplished only at adult institutions. The patient, 16-year-old Francisco “Frank” De Santiago, who was implanted with a mechanical heart pump called the HeartMate II on May 19, was discharged Oct. [Sign in to read the full article...]
Two Jerusalem men have been arrested on suspicion of organ trafficking, ynetnews.com reports. The police know of at least 10 Israelis who agreed to donate a kidney in connection to these men, most of them due to financial difficulties. Â Jerusalem Police investigators waited for the two suspects, Sami Shem-Tov and Dmitry Orenstein, at the [Sign in to read the full article...]
Pakistan’s National Assembly last week unanimously passed the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act 2009, banning citizens from donating body organs to foreigners. The legislation also bans the removal of any human organ except for treatment, according to a report from the Daily Times of Pakistan. Those involved in trafficking human organs could be [Sign in to read the full article...]
Physician bias might account for why African-Americans do not receive kidney/pancreas transplants at the same rate as similar patients in other racial groups, according to new research from Georgetown University published in the November issue of the American Journal of Transplantation. Medicare coverage for people needing a simultaneous kidney/pancreas transplant has increased in the past [Sign in to read the full article...]