Medical marvel: Six-day-old baby's
life saved with heart transplant at a US hospital
New Delhi: In a medical marvel, the
life of a six-day old premature baby born with a heart defect was saved when
doctors transplanted a heart in a ten hours surgery. Born to Caylyn Otto and
her husband Christopher Crawford, the baby has been nicknamed Oliver Hope.
Baby Oliver was diaganosed with the
problem after his mother Chris Crawford underwent a prenatal exam at 20 weeks
which showed a defect in the tiny baby's heart, called dilated cardiomyopathy.
Baby Oliver Crawford underwent the
operation at Phoenix Children's Hospital in Arizona after being born seven
weeks ahead of schedule with a heart defect which meant her parents didn't
expect him to survive.
It was confirmed four weeks later.
"The left ventricle was huge for a 24-week-old," pediatric cardiologist
Dr Christopher Lindblade told the Arizona Republic, adding: "It was
massive."
"The doctors had very little hope
that he would survive the pregnancy, and when our water broke at 33 weeks, we
were prepared to deliver a still born baby," said Caylyn, the infant's
mother yesterday.
"But he came out fighting,"
she added in a statement released by the hospital.
Doctors planned for a birth at 36
weeks, but Otto went into labor at 33 weeks.
Within hours of the birth the baby was
screened to see if he was healthy enough for a heart transplant. He was put on
a national transplant waiting list on January 9, and two days later a viable
heart became available.
The operation lasted for 10 hours,
after which he had an incision from his belly to his chest.
"From our understanding Oliver is
the youngest recipient in the nation. He received his transplant at 34 weeks
and 3 days gestation," said his mother.
The baby is recovering in hospital after being born on
January 5.
Source: www.zeenewsindia.com
14.02.2015
Fish can help heal skin wounds
Beijing: A protein found in tilapia fish
could heal skin wounds, finds a new study.
Applying collagen - a major structural
protein in animals - to wounds can help encourage skin to heal faster, said
researcher Xiumei Mo from Donghua University in Shanghai, China.
But when the protein dressing comes
from mammals such as cows and pigs, it has the potential to transmit conditions
such as foot-and-mouth disease.
Searching for an alternative source of
collagen, the researchers developed nanofibres from tilapia collagen and used
them to cover skin wounds on rats.
The rats with the nanofibre dressing
healed faster than those without it. In addition, lab tests on cells suggested
that the fish collagen was not likely to cause an immune reaction.
The researchers concluded that the
findings could lead to new therapies for human patients.
The
findings appeared in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Source: www.zeenewsindia.com
14.02.2015
We never learned from a man who agreed with us
Robert Heinlein
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