organ donation

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Ex-NBA Player Hears From Family of Heart Donor

Scot Pollard hopes to include them in a documentary about his experience

(Newser) - One of the first things that former NBA player and Survivor contestant Scot Pollard made sure to do after receiving a heart transplant was to write down his feelings when they were fresh, in the hopes that he would someday share them with the donor's family. "We want...

Man, 98, Believed to Be Oldest US Organ Donor Ever

His liver was successfully transplanted after his death

(Newser) - Orville Allen lived a lifetime of service, and when he died at age 98 he had one last thing to give: his liver. Allen, a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War and a longtime educator in rural southeastern Missouri, is the oldest American to ever donate...

Preschool Teacher Surprises Boy in Need of Liver
Boy in Need of Liver
Gets a Big Surprise
VIDEO

Boy in Need of Liver Gets a Big Surprise

'I felt like, if I can help him, I'm not going to sit here and watch him get sicker,' says his former preschool teacher

(Newser) - When Karen Toczek and her husband took in a little boy with liver damage at 7 months old, they were told Ezra would eventually need a liver transplant. When the time came at age 5, Toczek was in a tough position. "I'm the only one who has a...

After Family Is Killed, Organs of Infant Will 'Save Other Children'

SUV going the wrong way slammed into a San Francisco bus stop

(Newser) - The organs of a 3-month-old boy who died days after a car crashed into a San Francisco bus stop have been donated and "will serve to save the lives of other children," relatives said in a statement . The parents and older brother of Caue Ramos Pinto de Oliveira...

Height That Helped His NBA Career Now Threatens His Life

Ex-Pacer Scot Pollard, who was also on 'Survivor,' awaits heart transplant from a patient his size

(Newser) - At 6-foot-11, Scot Pollard's size helped him play more than a decade in the NBA, earning him a championship ring with the 2008 Boston Celtics. Now it may be killing him. Pollard needs a heart transplant, an already dire predicament that's made more difficult by the fact so...

7 Years After Saving Man, She Saves His Daughter

It's 'just what we should do,' paramedic Kristi Hadfield says of kidney donation

(Newser) - A week before she was gifted a life-saving kidney, Molly Jones finally met the woman who'd saved her father's life—and was now about to save her own. In 2016, paramedic Kristi Hadfield had been accompanying a military veteran who was feeling unwell to a hospital when his...

This Heart's Record Trip May Be Game-Changer for Transplants

Organ was transported 2.5K miles for transplant from Alaska to Boston, thanks to a special cooler

(Newser) - When it comes to heart transplants, doctors don't want to see more than four to six hours pass from the time the organ is taken out of one body and moved into another. But one heart recently spent more than seven hours in transit, and traveled more than 2,...

State Lawmakers Propose Cutting Sentences If Inmates Donate Organs

Critics call Massachusetts bill an ethical disaster

(Newser) - With more than 100,000 Americans on waiting lists for transplant organs and more than 2 million inmates in American prisons, an unusual proposal in Massachusetts might be closely watched by other states. Democratic state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would give inmates time off their sentences for donating...

Switzerland Makes a Move to Shrink Organ Transplant List

Organ donation will become opt-out instead of opt-in

(Newser) - Switzerland has just taken a big step in its quest to shrink its organ transplant waiting list backlogs. Under its new model, all residents will be considered potential donors after death unless they have opted out, a reverse from the current set-up, in which people opt-in while still alive. The...

Chat in Workplace Bathroom May Have Saved 2 Men's Lives

Co-workers Susan Ellis and Tia Wimbush each gave up one of their own kidneys

(Newser) - A chance conversation in a workplace restroom led to a happy ending for two men in desperate need of new kidneys. That meeting took place in August 2020 in a bathroom at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Co-workers Susan Ellis and Tia Wimbush had learned in 2019 that their husbands...

2 Days After Wedding, Bride Gives Kidney to Husband's Ex

Debby Neal-Strickland and Mylaen Merthe are now 'kidney sisters'

(Newser) - Ten years after their first date, Debby Neal-Strickland put on a cream-colored lace gown and married her longtime sweetheart at their Florida church. Two days later, she put on a hospital gown and donated a kidney to Mylaen Merthe—her new husband’s ex-wife, per the AP . Mylaen, 59, had...

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...

A Flickering Heart Doesn't Mean You're Alive
A Flickering Heart
Doesn't Mean
You're Alive
NEW STUDY

A Flickering Heart Doesn't Mean You're Alive

In one case, cardiac activity was observed more than 4 minutes after pulse was lost

(Newser) - There can be no question that a person has died and still, their heart may flicker. That's one takeaway from a new study analyzing the final moments of 631 patients taken off life support in Canada, the UK, and the Czech Republic. Researchers were particularly interested to learn "...

Rule Change Gives New Hope to People Waiting for an Organ

Feds says 'broken' system is being improved

(Newser) - The Trump administration's legacy will include a more efficient organ donation system that could save thousands of lives, under a new rule issued by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid services . The rule changes the way organ procurement organizations—federally funded nonprofit groups that collect organs from donors and...

Husband and Wife Save a Life, 15 Years Apart

Both donated organs to Florida's Jeffrey Granger

(Newser) - It's an organ donor story with an unusual twist: A husband and wife ended up being donors to the same man 15 years apart, reports CBS News . The story begins in 2004, when 35-year-old Bryan Herrington died after a fall from a roof on his construction job, per CNN...

9-Year-Old Killed in Bounce House Accident

Hospital honors young organ donor

(Newser) - A 9-year-old girl who died Friday after a bounce house accident has been honored at a Reno hospital for her organ donations. Hundreds of hospital employees, family members, and friends lined the halls for the honor walk, the Gazette Journal reports, as the body of Lizzy Hammond was taken from...

Granger Smith's Son Saved 2 Lives
Granger Smith's
Son Saved 2 Lives

Granger Smith's Son Saved 2 Lives

River, who died after drowning at age 3, was an organ donor

(Newser) - In an emotional Instagram post , country star Granger Smith's wife, Amber, reveals that after the couple's 3-year-old son River died by drowning , he saved the lives of two adults via organ donation. "When 3 different neuro specialists told us that River had 0% chance of brain recovery...

Trump's Kidney Move Is Earning Praise

It could save thousands, one writer argues

(Newser) - President Trump made headlines Wednesday, but not for the usual reasons: The executive order he signed this time around has to do with kidneys. Specifically, it aims to improve care for patients with kidney disease by making home treatment more available and encouraging more kidney donations, Politico reports. It also...

Fox's Ed Henry Delivers Emotional On-Air News

Correspondent is donating part of his liver to his sister this week

(Newser) - When Fox & Friends came back from a commercial break on Sunday morning, chief national correspondent Ed Henry delivered some unexpected news: "So, I'm going to donate part of my liver on Tuesday," he told his co-hosts, per Mediaite . See the clip here . Henry struggled with his...

'Extremely Emotional' Tribute for Nurse Who Gave Her All

More than 100 co-workers lined hospital hall to honor late Mary Desin before organ transplant

(Newser) - If you happened to be at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Hamot hospital on Friday, you may have stumbled across what a nurse's son described as an "extremely emotional" scene in one of the hallways. That nurse, per ABC News , was Mary Desin, an employee of...

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