Health

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Vital Signs

SHOW #14

England

ORGAN TRANSPLANTS' HIDDEN RISK

Imagine not only losing a loved one, but losing them after you thought they were handed a second lease on life. That's what happened to the family of Matthew Millington, a 31-year-old British corporal and Iraqi war veteran. Matthew needed a double lung transplant because of a terminal respiratory condition. But a cancerous tumor was found on those transplanted lungs six months after his surgery. One year after the transplant, Matthew died of lung cancer. His donor lungs had come from a person who smoked thirty to fifty cigarettes a day. The hospital's response? Its practice of using organs donated by smokers is quote - "not unusual" - and in line with international norms. In fact, almost half of all lungs transplanted in the UK are from smokers. And you might be surprised to hear that experts say the worldwide numbers are fairly comparable. With a shortage of organs, transplant centers around the world have widened their definition of donor suitability, accepting "marginal organ" donors with less than ideal medical histories.

MY STORY OF "C" 

British teenager Jazzy de Lisser has lived with the infectious liver disease hepatitis C since her mother passed it on to her at birth. An often overlooked and painful aspect of the disease is its stigma. Many people assume it comes from a history of injection drug use - despite the many ways it can be acquired. Using her illness as a platform to raise awareness, Jazzy made an award-winning film documenting her life and the debilitating -- and ultimately unsuccessful  -- treatment she endured.

OLD MEDICINE IS NEW

Using maggots to heal wounds is a centuries old remedy, but for desperate patients, they are still an innovation. Even if the concept seems primitive, maggots have become a thoroughly modern treatment. Their natural feeding action helps clean wounds. Medicinal maggots are part of a revival in treatments that are called biotherapies -- leeches are another. They're used as a last resort to help suck out the excess in a wound. These treatments aren't gimmicks, but clinically proven to help. Some therapies have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. and other medical authorities around the world.

THE FUTURE OF PROSTHETICS

26-year old Pierpaolo didn't realize how a car accident would change his life and the world of science. In Italy, Paolo Maria Rossini and his "Lifehand" team were creating something that could one day change Pierpaolo's life. They designed a robotic hand that could be controlled by thought --the future of prosthetics. Pierpaolo became the first patient in this one-month experiment; this was the first time such complex movements were made by a prosthetic using mind control, and the longest time electrodes have been connected to the human nervous system.