THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2008
NEWS 11A
Deity incarnate
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mother Sushma holds her daughter Lali at their residence in Saini Sunpura, 31 miles east of New Delhi, Tuesday. The baby with two faces, two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes was born on March 11 in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday.
SCIENCE
Simultaneous kidney transplant deemed a success after surgery
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BALTIMORE — Johns Hopkins surgeons transplanted a half-dozen kidneys simultaneously, an operation believed to be the first of its kind, hospital officials announced Tuesday.
The transplants conducted Saturday were made possible when a so-called altruistic donor, who was willing to donate to anyone, was found to be a match for one of six transplant candidates. Five of the candidates had a willing donor whose kidney was incompatible with their particular friend or relative, but a match for another of the six.
The 10-hour surgeries used six operating rooms and nine surgical teams.
"All 12 are doing great, the six kidneys are working well," said Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of Hopkins' transplant center and head of the transplant team.
organs taken from people who have died,but doctors prefer organs from live donors because the success rates are higher. The donors and recipients in the six-way transplant were matched using a living-donor system developed at Johns Hopkins.
"The waiting list for a kidney is very long and too many people die while waiting."
The six-way transplant follows a quintuple transplant performed in 2006 at the hospital and several triple transplants. Last week, doctors at Chicago's
JEANNE HEISE Wife of chief of staff Josh Bolten
Montgomery said the surgeries are performed simultaneously to ensure no one backs out after their loved one has received a kidney.
Montgomery has advocated a wider system of connecting altruistic donors, transplant candidates and incompatible but willing donors to increase the number of available organs.
Randy Bolten, whose brother is
"All 12 are doing great, the six kidneys are working well."
"We want to spread the word about this sort of group surgery and living organ donation." Heise said in a statement issued by the National Kidney
DR. ROBERT MONTGOMERY Director of Hopkins'transplant center and head of transplant team
President Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, was among the donors. He couldn't donate a kidney to his wife, Jeanne Heise, but he was a match for another recipe
Northwestern Memorial Hospital performed simultaneous transplants of four kidneys.
chain of transplants became possible.
Foundation of Northern California.
"The waiting list for a kidney is very long and too many people die while waiting. With this group procedure, more and more people can beat kidney disease and live long productive lives."
Most kidney transplants use
ent.
Heise, who has suffered from kidney disease for more than 30 years, was about to go on dialysis when the
The United Network for Organ Sharing knows of no other six-way transplant, spokeswoman Amanda Claggett said. She added that, so-called paired donations are still very rare.
More than 252,000 kidney transplants have been performed in the United States since UNOS started keeping data in 1988; 87,000 of the kidneys came from living donors. There have been only 301 transplants performed through so-called paired kidney exchange, including 122 in 2007, Claggett said.
She said more than 75,000 people are waiting for kidney transplants and 4,352 died while waiting for a kidney last year.
IN BRIEF Girl dies from injuries sustained in beating
YORK, Pa. — A 2-year-old girl died after being beaten with a video game controller by her mother's boyfriend, police said Tuesday.
Darisabel Baez's mother overheard the beating Sunday but did nothing until she realized the girl was unconscious, police said. The girl was pronounced dead late Monday at Hershey Medical Center, police Lt. Ron Camacho said.
Homicide was added to the list of charges against Harve L. Johnson on Tuesday; he was
It was clear from the bruises and other injuries on the little girl's body that Sunday was not the first time she had been abused, Dauphin County coroner Graham Hetrick told WGAL-TV.
Johnson, 26, acknowledged beating the girl with a video game controller but did not say why, police said. Baez said Johnson had abused the girl in the past and that she heard the girl scream after Johnson beat her Sunday,
The girl's mother, Neida E. Baez was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
already in jail on counts including aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.
according to the affidavit.
Detective Dana Ward said Baez was charged because she did not intervene or try to get help for Darisabel Johnson and Baez remained in custody Tuesday.
BEST BBQ IN LAWRENCE delivered right to your door.
For fast delivery 785-856-2550
Or stop in at 24th & Iowa (next to Kier's Audio)
www.ribdelivery.com for full menu, drink specials, and coupons
BIGG'S BBQ
2429 Iowa
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUY ONE ICE CREAM CREATION AND
GET ONE FOR 25¢!
WITH YOUR KU ID
BETWEEN 7PM AND 10PM
NEW YORK
In a speech Tuesday at Georgetown University in Washington, the mayor shrugged off the defeat and said courage is needed in political leaders to take decisive action on the environment.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, talks to reporters at the state Capitol in Albany, N.Y., Monday. Silver says the Assembly is rejecting Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal to charge a fee to reduce traffic in Manhattan.
NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to charge drivers extra tolls to enter Manhattan's most congested neighborhoods earned him invitations to speak at such gatherings as the U.N. climate conference and raised his profile as he considered a presidential run.
Proposal to place tolls in Manhattan fails to pass
But the plan died Monday when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in Albany announced his chamber wouldn't take up the proposal because of strong opposition within the conference dominated by New York City Democrats.
"A lot of people would still rather do nothing. It is sad but true. It takes courage to ask people to change — even if it won't really cost them much. Political leaders today are afraid of their constituents," he said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In lobbying for his plan, Bloomberg displayed a short fuse with anyone who didn't support the idea, painting opponents as "stupid" people who didn't care about the environment, progress and the health of asthma-afflicted children.
The traffic fee proposal, known as congestion pricing, called for drivers of cars to pay $8, and trucks $21, to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays. Opponents argued it was an unfair tax on middle-class commuters who drive to work for lack of mass transit options in their neighborhoods.
by about 6 percent and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue for transportation projects. Bloomberg shrugged off criticism that the fee was too high by comparing it to the price of a movie.
U. S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters had said the administration hoped congestion pricing in New York could serve as a model for other cities nationwide. Charging drivers fees in congested city centers is a concept that has gained popularity around the world but has yet to be tried on a major scale in a large U.S. city.
pricing before a midnight deadline on Monday, the state appeared to have forfeited an offer of $354 million in federal money to help kickstart the initiative.
By failing to pass congestion-
But in the weeks leading up to the Earth Day 2007 speech in which he unveiled the plan, Bloomberg became convinced it was something New York City had to try, promising to "fight like heck" to get it done.
Bloomberg, an independent with less than two years left in his second term, has long portrayed himself as a maverick leader unfazed by forging ahead with unpopular policy decisions, such as banning smoking in bars and clubs and outlawing trans fats in restaurants.
City officials estimated congestion pricing would reduce traffic
Bloomberg also was known to hint that lawmakers who backed his legislative efforts could be rewarded down the line with his political and monetary support, while those who didn't fall in line could suffer the consequences.
Silver, a Democrat, was also involved in another Bloomberg failure: The mayor's 2005 attempt to build a new football stadium and conference center on Manhattan's West Side collapsed without Silver's support.
---