Baby boy’s life-saving heart, thymus transplant could be game changer – National & International News – WED 9Mar2022

How a baby’s heart and thymus transplant could revolutionize transplant medicine. Venezuela frees two US captives in show of good faith. Russia strikes Ukraine maternity hospital.

NATIONAL NEWS

Baby boy’s life-saving double heart, thymus transplant could be game changer

In August 2021, a baby boy called Easton received a double transplant of a heart and some thymus tissue from his heart donor. Easton was 6 months old at the time, and is now about 1 year old and is doing well.

Easton was born with heart problems and a weak immune system. The thymus is located at the base of the neck and is one of the key nodes of the lymphatic system which controls the immune system. The transplanted thymus tissue seems to have improved Easton’s immune response. But it had another potential benefit which may be a game changer for recipients of organ transplants. 

Most organ recipients have to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives. Anti-rejection drugs can prolong the life of an organ recipient, but can also negatively affect the kidneys and other vital organs. But Easton’s doctors hope that the donor thymus tissue will essentially fool Easton’s immune system into accepting the heart as being his own rather than alien tissue which must be attacked.

Easton is still taking an anti-rejection treatment, but doctors hope to wean him off of it over the coming months.

Man who received pig heart transplant dies

There’s some sad news on the transplant medicine front. David Bennett, the world’s first recipient of a genetically modified pig heart, died yesterday at the age of 57. Bennett lived for two months after the ground-breaking operation. His physicians have not revealed whether this death was due to complications from the procedure. Further study may be needed to settle that question.

What is certain is that the procedure gave Bennett two months of life that he would not otherwise have had, since he was ineligible to receive a human heart.

Bennett’s son, David Jr., said he was grateful for those two precious much, during which his father watched the Super Bowl and visited with family and friends. “We are grateful for every innovative moment, every crazy dream, every sleepless night that went into this historic effort,” David Jr. said.

Venezuela releases two American captives in show of good faith

There is at least a sliver of good news arising as a by-product of the horrors in Europe. With imports of Russian oil blocked, the US is looking to other sources. This weekend, US officials opened negotiations with the government of Venezuela. Their aim is to thaw relations and get Venezuela’s oil back on the international market. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has signaled that he was open to bettering relations with the US in exchange for relief from sanctions that prevent his country from selling oil and gas to much of the world.

As a good faith gesture, Venezuela has released two American prisoners. One is Gustavo Cárdenas, a Citgo Oil executive, who had been in a Venezuelan prison for nearly 6 years. Cárdenas was one of six Citgo executives who was imprisoned in Venezuela in 2017 on corruption charges. Today, Cárdenas’ ordeal is over and he is back with his family in Texas. The other five Citgo execs remain in Venezuelan custody.

The second American to be released was Jorge Alberto Fernández. Venezuelan authorities arrested Fernández last year on espionage charges after he brought a drone into the country.

Cárdenas family happy to have their dad back home (opens in new tab).

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Ukraine: Outrage after Russia strikes maternity hospital

The Black Sea city of Mariupol continues to endure relentless Russian shelling. Today, a maternity hospital in the city was hit, violating a previously agreed humanitarian ceasefire. The strike at least partially destroyed the hospital and forced an evacuation. Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed there were still children under the rubble, but no deaths have yet been confirmed. Ukrainian officials have since confirmed 17 injuries from the hospital attack.

Mariupol, a city of 400,000, is in a dire situation generally. Olena Stokoz of Ukraine’s Red Cross says, “The whole city remains without electricity, water, food, whatever and people are dying because of dehydration”.

Efforts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol and other cities have been repeatedly thwarted by Russian shelling. Over 2 million Ukrainians have left the country as refugees in the two weeks since the invasion began.

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