Organ Transplant, Kidney 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.

"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.

Renee Patterson's most precious present this Christmas won't be under her tree, and it didn't come from a store. This holiday, she says, she got her life back.