Years of serious childhood illness and two organ transplants stifled Trevor O’Sullivan’s personal wishlist for years. He’s still ill – but now he wants to really go for it, Rocky-style.
Confusion still surrounds sequence of events that left 14-year-old patient without timely transportation to London for liver transplant surgery on Saturday.
Surgeons in Boston have successfully performed the second full facial transplant in the United States; the patient, 30-year-old Mitch Hunter, was disfigured in a car accident ten years ago.
A 26-year-old who lost her hand in a traffic accident has undergone a successful hand transplant in California, as has a 21-year-old Atlanta woman who had her hand amputated in infancy.
Poor donation rates have contributed to seven out of ten organs harvested in Ireland being sent to other countries last year as they were incompatible with patients awaiting transplants here.
A BOY FROM Northern Ireland, who was the first child in the world to undergo a windpipe transplat using stem cells, is set to return home today after the operation was deemed a success.
Doctors are hoping the operation will mean a huge leap in regenerative medicine along the lines of Finn-Lynch’s surgery.
Ciaran Finn-Lynch, 11, received a trachea from an Italian donor in a nine-hour operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, in March. Doctors had removed the donor’s cells using digestive enzymes and replaced them with Finn-Lynch’s own stem cells.
The stem cells originated in his bone marrow, and were used to ensure the organ was not rejected after the transplant. The pioneering surgery meant that the new tissue grew on the trachea while it was inside his body, instead of being cultivated externally.
Ciaran was born with a condition which meant he had a very narrow windpipe which made breathing difficult. Procedures to open up his airways provided temporary relief before surgeons suggested a transplant as a more permanent solution last year.
FRANCE HAS BECOME the 14th country to legalise same-sex marriage after President Francois Hollande signed the measure into law today following months of bitter political debate.
In Ireland last month, 79 per cent of delegates at the Constitutional Convention voted in favour of same-sex marriage but the Government will hold off on a referendum until next year despite the overwhelming support.
It comes two years after the legalisation of Civil Partnership.
Is another year too long for a referendum on gay marriage? Or, are you opposed to the idea entirely?
So today, we want to know what do you think. Would you welcome the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Ireland today, similar to France?
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