Organ Transplant | featured news

It turns out you can recycle just about anything these days - even kidneys and other organs donated for transplants. Recently in Chicago, in what is believed to be the first documented case of its kind in the U.S., a transplanted kidney that was failing was removed from a patient while he was still alive and given to somebody else.

A New York man pleaded guilty Thursday to what experts said was the first ever proven case of black-market organ trafficking in the United States. Levy Izhak Rosenbaum admitted in federal court in Trenton that he had brokered three illegal kidney transplants from people in Israel for U.S.-based customers in exchange for payments of $120,000 or more. He also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to broker an illegal kidney sale.

One of Taiwan's best regarded hospitals said HIV-infected organs were mistakenly transplanted into five patients after a hospital staffer misheard the donor's test results by telephone....

They savor pizza and burgers, no longer frighten children, and many of them can walk the streets without people knowing they have someone else's cheeks, nose, lips and skin. People who have had face transplants increasingly are going public, helping to transform an operation that six years ago was daredevil theory into one that is widely accepted....

The nation's first full face transplant recipient said the first thing his young daughter told him when she saw him after the operation was "Daddy, you're so handsome."...

"30 Rock" star Tracy Morgan is recovering from a kidney transplant. A statement released Monday by Morgan's publicist says Morgan is doing well and taking "much-needed time" to recover from the surgery earlier this month.

A two-year international inquiry has concluded that the prime minister of Kosovo led a clan of criminal entrepreneurs who presided over an organ-trafficking network that extracted kidneys from Serbian prisoners executed during the Kosovo conflict in 1999.

Andrea Ybarra's donated heart was beating rhythmically by the time she awoke from the grogginess of her surgery. Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Lub-dub. In fact, it was warm and pumping even before doctors transplanted it.

Some 911 calls that involve cardiac arrest could draw a second ambulance as part of a new pilot program in New York City intended to more quickly recover organs from potential donors, the mayor said Wednesday.

Johnny Concepcion, a New York man accused of stabbing his wife to death earlier this month, just received a liver transplant. Many are wondering how a confessed killer could jump to the top of a long list of those needing a transplant.