Organ Donation
The first live-donor kidney transplant occurred 52 years ago. Back then, and as recently as a decade ago, the biggest challenge was making the transplants actually work. Today, thanks to medical advances, most transplants are successful. But people continue to die every day because of organ shortages. It’s estimated that by the year 2010 100,000 people will be on waiting lists. A recent survey indicates that as many as 40% of potential kidney donors decide not to donate because of “financial concerns”. In this month’s issue of the American Journal of Transplantation, a group of medical, legal, economics and ethics specialists propose a system that they say could help solve the shortage problem. Doctor Robert S. Gaston, director of medical evaluation and patient treatment for UAB’s kidney transplant program, spoke with WBHM’s Tanya Ott.
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Attitudes among Alabama lawmakers softening on Medicaid expansion
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Birmingham is 3rd worst in the Southeast for ozone pollution, new report says
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Why haven’t Kansas and Alabama — among other holdouts — expanded access to Medicaid?
Only 10 states have not joined the federal program that expands Medicaid to people who are still in the "coverage gap" for health care
Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing
Thousands of ordinary people who helped clean up after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say they got sick. A court settlement was supposed to help compensate them, but it hasn’t turned out as expected.
