Saturday, February 2, 2008

INTERPOL Searches for Indian Doctors | Indian Muslims

INTERPOL Searches for Indian Doctors | Indian MuslimsINTERPOL Searches for Indian Doctors
Submitted by Mudassir Rizwan on Sat, 02/02/2008 - 07:27. India News
By Prensa Latina

New Delhi : At the request of the Indian government, INTERPOL issued arrest warrants for two Indian physicians, ringleaders of an illegal liver-transplant group, PTI agency reported on Friday.

The fugitives left the country and may have gone to Canada after the authorities broke into their residence near New Delhi, in Gurgaon, Haryana State, where they were performing the transplants.

The Indian government wants the brothers, 40-year-old Amit Kumar and Jeevan age 36, for illegal liver transplant, fraud, swindling and criminal conspiracy.

In the last few years the Kumar brothers led a profitable group extracting kidneys of poor people for a limited amount of money to transplant them to rich people, including foreigners.

GIFT OF LIFE: Natalie homes in on more transplant games medals - The Star

GIFT OF LIFE: Natalie homes in on more transplant games medals - The Star

Monday, January 28, 2008

Promises of organ donations up in Waco area

Promises of organ donations up in Waco area


Promises of organ donations up in Waco area



Monday, January 28, 2008

By Cindy V. Culp

Tribune-Herald staff writer

In just a few years, Waco has gone from what officials called a shockingly low rate of organ donation to one of the best in the state.

For 2007, the rate of consent was 83 percent, said Michelle Segovia, a Texas Organ Sharing Alliance spokeswoman. That means 10 of 12 local families who were asked to donate the organs of a loved one agreed.

Those numbers are a dramatic improvement over the past four years, Segovia said, when the consent rate varied from 33 to 56 percent. They also put Waco ahead of the national average of about 65 percent and gave the city one of the highest consent rates in the state, she said.

“Waco has really taken ownership,” Segovia said.

The alliance began promoting organ donation in Waco in 2005, after learning that the consent rate for the previous year was 38 percent. It hired a part-time community educator and formed an advisory group that included organ recipients and their family members, hospital officials and others.

The group made the rounds at civic meetings and other events, which likely led to an increased rate in 2005, Segovia said. But momentum was lost the next year, which saw the consent slip to 33 percent.

After evaluating the situation, the alliance decided to concentrate its resources on working with Waco’s two hospitals, Segovia said. Since health care workers are on the front lines of organ donation, it made sense to target them in addition to the community, she said.

The alliance formed an improvement team at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center. Since the hospital serves as the region’s trauma center, it deals with the majority of patients who are potential organ donors.

Shante Wells, the alliance’s hospital development coordinator, said the group includes a broad spectrum of people from the hospital. That has helped improve communications about organ donation both internally and with the alliance, she said.

The group has firmed up the hospital’s policies relating to organ donation and trained staff on signs that indicate a patient may be a potential donor.

Those efforts together resulted in Hillcrest having a 90 percent consent rate last year, Wells said. The program has been so successful, she said, that the alliance is thinking about replicating it in other cities.

Ross Davis, team chairman and Hillcrest’s manager of pastoral care, said having the group has fostered a real sense of teamwork within the hospital about organ donation. He said he is optimistic that the high consent rate will continue this year as the hospital and alliance work together to reach out to patients and the broader community.

The alliance is optimistic, too, Segovia said. Officials are excited about the development of a Students for Organ Donation chapter at Baylor University this year. The national group works to promote organ donor awareness on college campuses.

Miracle liver transplant girl wants to thank donor's family - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Miracle liver transplant girl wants to thank donor's family - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Miracle liver transplant girl wants to thank donor's family
Posted Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:20pm AEDT

Map: Gerroa 2534
A Gerroa teenager whose natural adaptation to a donated organ is being hailed as a medical first says she wants to thank the family of her donor.

Demi-Lee Brennan, 15, from the New South Wales south coast, had a liver transplant when she was nine, after almost dying from severe liver failure.

However, her body radically adapted to the new organ, changing her DNA and performing its own bone marrow transplant.

"People have explained it to me, but it's kind of still hard to understand," she said.

Unlike other patients she does not have to use immuno-suppressant drugs for the rest of her life and says she owes her life to the unknown family of the donor.

"When I turn 18 I can have the decision of meeting with the family or not," she said.

Doctors at Sydney's Westmead Hospital say Ms Brennan's case is unique in the world.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Organ Transplant Without Lifelong Drugs

Organ Transplant Without Lifelong Drugs