organ donor

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For Organ Donations, an 'Unnecessary Barrier' Is Gone

Individuals with HIV will now be allowed to receive organs from HIV-positive donors, per new HHS rule

(Newser) - People with HIV who need a kidney or liver transplant will be able to receive an organ from a donor with HIV under a new rule announced Tuesday by US health officials. Previously, such transplants could be done only as part of research. The new rule, which takes effect Wednesday,...

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
Jun 10, 2024 10:19 AM CDT

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...

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...

Woman Finds Lifesaving Kidney on TikTok

Savannah Stallbaumer jumped at the chance to help fellow Kansan Katie Hallum, a stranger

(Newser) - In a 10-second TikTok video , Katie Hallum infused humor into her plea for a lifesaving kidney. She stepped out from behind a door as the words "POV: I overhear you say you have an O blood type and healthy kidneys" appeared on screen, then mouthed a quote from The ...

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,...

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...

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...

Granger Smith's Son Saved 2 Lives
Granger Smith's
Son Saved 2 Lives
Jul 15, 2019 11:09 AM CDT

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...

'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...

They Wore Green T-Shirts to a Cardinals Game, Fatefully

It leads to a wild meeting

(Newser) - A heart recipient ran into his donor's family completely by chance at an MLB game—and it was all due to a bunch of T-shirts. CBS News reports that Savannah Chavez Roesch and family members went to the St. Louis Cardinals' "Transplant Awareness Day" on April 28, all...

A Big North American First for Organ Donation

Nova Scotia is instituting 'presumed consent'

(Newser) - It's a first in North America: Nova Scotia will switch to a system that presumes consent for organ and tissue donation. That means you can opt out if you don't want to donate your organs, but if you take no action, you are assumed to be a donor....

It's a First: Someone Living With HIV Donates Organ

Atlanta's Nina Martinez is a kidney donor to HIV-positive recipient

(Newser) - She donated a kidney to a stranger, but that's not the reason Nina Martinez's decision is making international headlines. The 36-year-old Atlanta resident is HIV-positive, and the surgery at Johns Hopkins is the first time anywhere that someone living with the virus has donated an organ, reports FOX...

His Ex Wasn't 'the One.' But She Was 'the Donor'

Minn. grandma Mary Ziegler donates organ to her former husband

(Newser) - Not all divorces have to end in acrimony. Just ask Mary Ziegler and Bill Henrichs, who when they ended their marriage two decades ago made a pledge to treat each other right for their kids' sake. "You know all those bad divorce things, we agreed not to do that,...

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