Medics drop heart on way to hospital (VIDEO)
AP
(CBS) In urgent medical situations, there's always a risk that frenzied professionals may drop the ball. When rushing to a Mexico City hospital for a transplant, some medics did just that - by dropping a human heart.
For the life-saving operation, a helicopter was used to deliver the heart in "a rapid, precision maneuver," Mexico City police told the Associated Press.
But after exiting the chopper, a medic stumbled, and the plastic-wrapped heart tumbled out of a cooler and onto the street.
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Mom gives daughter, 7, liposuction gift voucher
"Human Barbie" Sarah Burge set up a website for her 7-year-old daughter, Poppy.
/ www.poppyburge.com(CBS) Some parents are criticized for spoiling their kids with overly expensive Christmas presents. But one mom who spent roughly $10,800 on a single present for her 7-year-old daughter is under fire for a different reason. The hefty price tag came with a voucher for liposuction, the Daily Mail reported.
PICTURES - 13 bizarre but popular plastic surgery procedures
Sarah Burge, the UK's self-proclaimed "Human Barbie," is notorious for her plastic surgery fixation. For her daughter's recent birthday, the 51-year-old woman of Cambridgeshire, England, gifted Poppy with a 6,000-pound voucher (roughly $9,252) for breast augmentation. It's no surprise then that for Christmas, Burge stuffed Poppy's stocking with a gift certificate valued at nearly $11,000 for liposuction.
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Gov't may regulate face, hand transplants
Charla Nash, a Connecticut woman who was mauled by a chimpanzee, is the most recent face transplant recipient. She had the procedure last May.
/ FriendsofCharlaNash.com / Brigham & Women's Hospital / TODAY(CBS/AP) The government regulates kidney, heart, and other organ transplants with waiting lists. What's next? Face and hand transplants. The nationwide system is intended to match and distribute body parts and donor testing to prevent deadly infections.
PICTURES - 7 amazing face transplants (GRAPHIC IMAGES)
It's a big step toward expanding access to these radical operations - especially for wounded troops returning home. More than 1,000 troops have lost an arm or leg in Afghanistan are preparing to offer the operations.
Continue »Arsenic in juice to televised stroke scares: 2011's top health stories
Serene Branson scared some television viewers when her speech became garbled during a Grammy Awards broadcast in February. She was later diagnosed with having a migraine
/ AP/KCBS TVPICTURES: 2011 Year in Review: Health
Some of the top stories from this past year looked at amazing medical procedures, including the marathon separation surgeries of conjoined twins or the groundbreaking operations that gave three Americans new faces. Some stories challenged long-held beliefs, questioning the benefits of seemingly everyday parts of life like circumcision, cellphones, multivitamins, and vaccines.
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Face transplant surgery: How are patients now?
Mitch Hunter, 30, before and after full face transplant surgery
/ Hunter family/ Lightchaser Photography(CBS) A new study offers a rare inside look at the three full face transplant procedures underwent at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston in 2011.
PICTURES: 7 Amazing face transplants (GRAPHIC IMAGES)
In March, surgeons at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston performed the first full face transplant in the U.S. on Dallas Wiens, a 26-year-old Texas man who accidentally struck a power line when painting a church. Less than a month later, BWH surgeons performed a full face transplant on 30-year-old Mitch Hunter of Indiana, who was disfigured after an auto accident (pictured). Then Charla Nash, who made headlines when her neighbor's chimpanzee mauled her in 2009, underwent the procedure at the hospital in May. All three are well on their way to recovery.
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Conjoined twins successfully separated in Chile (PICTURES)
Conjoined twins Maria Paz and Maria Jose Paredes Navarrete are seen prior to a surgery to separate them in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011.
/ AP(CBS/AP) Conjoined twins in Chile were successfully separated early Wednesday after a marathon 18-hour surgery. The 10-month-old girls, Maria Paz and Maria Jose, are now in stable condition and in the intensive care unit at Luis Calvo Mackenna Hospital, chief surgeon Francisco Ossandon said.
PICTURES - Conjoined twins: 40 amazing photos (GRAPHIC IMAGES)
The procedure was widely followed in the South American country on television and on the Internet. Parents Jessica Navarrete and Roberto Paredes kept an anxious vigil at the hospital in Santiago as doctors separated the twins at the thorax, stomach and pelvis. It was the seventh and most complex operation yet for the twins, who lost a lot of blood in the process.
Continue »FDA targets surgical centers over Lap-Band ads
Adjustable gastric band
/ CBS(CBS/AP) The FDA has officially warned eight California surgical centers and the marketing firm "1-800-GET-THIN LLC" over "misleading" advertising for the "Lap-Band" obesity device.
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The FDA said the ads - some of which appear on billboards- make claims such as "I lost 90 pounds with the Lap-Band!" or "Ready to be the next weight-loss success story?" but leave out mandatory information about side effects and surgical risks.
Formerly conjoined twins to leave hospital, continue recovery
Teresa (left) with mom, Lisandra Sanatis, and Maria with Rocio Watson of the World Pediatric Project - the group that helped sponsor the operation.
/ AP(CBS/AP) Formerly conjoined twins Maria and Teresa Tapia should return home to the Dominican Republic by Christmas, their doctors say. The toddlers are currently recovering from separation surgery in Virginia.
PICTURES - Conjoined twins Maria & Teresa Tapia: Before and after
For the nearly daylong surgery on Nov. 8, doctors at the Children's Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University divided the twins' liver, pancreas, and other shared organs, and reconstructed their abdominal walls.
How are the twins doing?
Continue »Skinny patients more likely to die after surgery
istockphoto
(CBS) Being thin might not be "in" when it comes to surgery.
A new study suggests skinny people are much more likely to die after surgery than their overweight counterparts.
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Formerly conjoined twins to go home
AP
(CBS/AP) Angelica and Angelina Sabuco, once conjoined twins, are now preparing to leave the hospital - in separate car seats.
PICTURES - Conjoined twins Angelina and Angelica Sabuco
It's been two weeks since the twins' successful separation surgery at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University. And the hospital says they're ready to return to their San Jose home in a few days.
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Do gravely ill alcoholics deserve new livers?
In this Nov. 8, 2011 photo, Jane Sussman sits on the porch of the temporary home where she's lived since May 2011, waiting for a liver transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. A pre-school teacher from Cambridge, Mass., Sussman has been waiting for a liver transplant of more than a year doesn't want heavy drinkers to be added to the waiting list for organs.
/ AP PhotoIn the small French study, most of the patients who got a liver without the wait stopped drinking after surgery and stayed sober for years. The study involved patients who had been suffering from alcohol-related hepatitis so severe that they were unlikely to survive a six-month delay. In addition to hepatitis, heavy drinking can cause liver cirrhosis - another common reason for liver transplants.
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Conjoined twins Maria and Teresa Tapia said faring well
World Pediatric Project
PICTURES: Conjoined twins separated in 20-hour surgery
"The twins are in good condition and remain in the pediatric ICU," Malorie Burkett, hospital spokesperson told CBS News Wednesday afternoon. "We are pleased with their progress."
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Conjoined twins separated at Va. hospital
(CBS/AP) A pair of conjoined twins are paired no more, now that doctors at a Va. hospital separated them during a 20-hour procedure.
PICTURES: Conjoined twins separated in 20-hour surgery
Nineteen-month-old Maria and Teresa Tapia were separated at Children's Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University, CBS 6 WTVR in Richmond, reported.
The surgery took a team of 45 medical personnel to separate the twins. Maria's surgery lasted a total of 20 hours, while Teresa's clocked in at 18.5 hours. Dr. David Lanning, associate professor of surgery at VCU led the squad of surgeons.
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C-sections for all? New U.K. rules stir debate
Pauline Hull, who runs a website about elective C-sections, poses with her children in Farnham, England, in this photo dated Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011.
/ AP(CBS/AP) Are free C-sections a good thing? Lots of British folks are asking, now that a new rule change may soon allow women to get a cesarean on the government's dime.
PICTURES: 12 crazy myths about pregnancy
Currently the National Health Service covers the cost of C-sections if there are health concerns for mom or baby. The new rules would require the NHS to pay for the procedure also for pregnant women "with no identifiable reason" for a cesarean, after talking it over with mental health experts.
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Calif. conjoined twins separated: How are they?
Conjoined twins Angelica and Angelina Sabuco
/ AP(CBS/AP) Conjoined twins Angelica and Angelina Sabuco were separated Tuesday, following a nine-hour operation.
PICTURES: Conjoined twins Angelica and Angelina Sabuco
PICTURES: Conjoined twins: 34 amazing photos (GRAPHIC IMAGES)
The operation on the two-year-old sisters- who were joined at the chest and abdomen - was performed by a team of more than 40 at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
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