lung transplants

15 Stories

A 'New Category' of Transplant Patients Is Emerging

COVID is leaving formerly healthy people with destroyed lungs

(Newser) - Another gloomy sidebar to the COVID story: the fact that the illness is giving rise to what one doctor calls "a completely new category of transplant patients." NBC News charts the evolution of thought about giving new lungs or hearts to patients who have seen those organs essentially...

Transplant From Husband, Son Saves Life of COVID Patient

Infection destroyed Japanese woman's lung function

(Newser) - Surgeons in Japan say they have carried out a first-of-its-kind operation that will give hope to coronavirus patients with severe lung damage. In the world's first transplant of lung tissue from living donors to a COVID patient, a woman who had spent months on a life support machine received...

She Received 2 New Lungs, and a Hidden COVID Infection
This COVID Transmission
Is First of Its Kind
in case you missed it
Feb 27, 2021 2:45 PM CST

This COVID Transmission Is First of Its Kind

Woman received a double-lung transplant, but they were unknowingly infected with coronavirus

(Newser) - A woman received two new lungs in a double transplant last year, but it turns out the lungs were unknowingly infected with COVID-19, reports Kaiser Health News . The unidentified woman died last fall, two months after the operation in Michigan. It's the first confirmed case of the virus being...

Lung Transplant Surgeon: Vaping Damage Is 'Evil I Haven't Faced Before'

17-year-old patient received double transplant

(Newser) - After he led a team that successfully performed a double lung transplant on a teenager, a doctor at Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital said he was shocked by what vaping had done to the young man. "What I saw in his lungs is nothing that I have ever seen...

Man With Lungs Wrecked by Vaping Gets Double Transplant

Detroit hospital says this is a first

(Newser) - A man whose lungs were damaged beyond repair by vaping has undergone a double lung transplant at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. The hospital says it believes it is the first in the country to perform the procedure on a patient harmed by vaping, Detroit Free Press reports. The hospital...

Man Denied Transplant Due to Pot Use Dies at 20

Utah hospital kicked him off transplant list

(Newser) - Riley Hancey, the Utah man who was turned away for a lung transplant by University of Utah Hospital after he was found to have traces of pot in his system, received new lungs in a different state months later, but it wasn't enough to give his story a happy...

Woman's Lungs Were Killing Her, So Docs Just Removed Them

Melissa Benoit survived six days without lungs while waiting for transplant

(Newser) - Melissa Benoit "thought it was a piece of science fiction" when she learned what doctors had done to her, CBC reports. The Canadian mom just couldn't believe it when she learned she had survived for six days without lungs—an impressive feat detailed in a study published Wednesday....

Sisters Get New Lungs —From Same Donor

The chances were small, but it worked out for Irma Myers-Santana, Anna Williamson

(Newser) - They quibble, joke, and share knowing looks, but for months, Irma Myers-Santana, 71, and her sister, Anna Williamson, 69, had been debating who more urgently needed a lung transplant, each wanting the other to go first. Earlier this month, though, the sisters ended up in the same operating room, each...

Girl Who Got Lung Transplant Needed Another

But Sarah Murnaghan is doing better after second operation

(Newser) - The 10-year-old girl whose need for a lung transplant brought national attention to the way the donor waiting list works is recuperating after needing a second transplant. The parents of Sarah Murnaghan revealed yesterday that the first set of lungs their daughter received failed just hours after the operation was...

2nd Family Sues Sebelius Over Organ Transplant

Judge rules that 11-year-old can go on adult waiting list

(Newser) - This might help explain why health secretary Kathleen Sebelius didn't think it was wise to intervene on organ-donor rules in the case of a young girl needing a lung transplant. One day after that family sued and won the right to have the 10-year-old placed on the adult waiting...

Parents to Sebelius: Tweak Transplant Law, Save Our Kid

Girl with cystic fibrosis needs adult lungs fast

(Newser) - Parents in Pennsylvania are calling for Kathleen Sebelius' help: Their 10-year-old daughter could have just weeks to live without a lung transplant, but current rules stand in her way. Suffering from cystic fibrosis, Sarah Murnaghan has been waiting for 18 months for a transplant. She's at the top of...

Dying Boy Gets Lung From Mom, Another From Dad

Both parents and son are recovering well in Germany

(Newser) - Two German parents donated a lung each to save their 12-year-old son. The boy suffers from cystic fibrosis, and his situation became so dire in April that he was hooked up to both a ventilator and a heart-lung machine, reports Germany's The Local . With no donor in sight, his...

Pig Lung Transplants for Humans Move Closer

Ethicists object to creating human-animal hybrid

(Newser) - Animal organ transplants in humans are now a step closer to reality: Scientists have successfully combined animal lungs with human blood, keeping a pig lung alive and functioning as the blood flowed through it. “The blood went into the lungs without oxygen and came out with oxygen, which is...

Transplant List Called Misleading

1/3 of patients on the list not eligible for surgery

(Newser) - Thousands of patients on a national list for organ transplants are actually ineligible to receive them, the Washington Post reports. One third of the 98,000 patients on the United Network for Organ Sharing list are either too sick or too healthy to get a new organ. Critics say including...

Robert Goulet Dies at 73
Robert Goulet Dies at 73
Oct 31, 2007 3:39 AM CDT

Robert Goulet Dies at 73

Acclaimed crooner was awaiting a lung transplant

(Newser) - Robert Goulet, whose deep baritone and matinee-idol looks propelled him to fame in the 1960s, died yesterday while waiting for a lung transplant. Goulet, 73, became a star almost overnight when he debuted as Lancelot in the Broadway production of Camelot, the LA Times reports, and  went on to a...

15 Stories