A debate has sparked among U.S. surgeons over deciding when an organ donor can be pronounced dead after a team of doctors from Denver published their first account of infant organ transplantation.

A detailed description of the transplants in Wednesday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine says the surgeons removed the hearts of severely brain-damaged newborns less than two minutes after the babies were disconnected from life support and their hearts stopped beating. The organs of the babies were transplanted into infants who would otherwise die

German researchers have developed a new procedure for kidney transplant patients that replaces anti-rejection drugs with infection-fighting white cells. The procedure boosts immune cells that guard against rejection and eliminates drug side effects.

A team, led by Professor Fred Fandrich from the University of Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel, Germany, developed a procedure to remove infection-fighting white cells from the blood of a kidney transplant recipient and subject them to a highly complex procedure in which cells are taken from a living or deceased donor

The first American patient to be implanted with a new device that helps the heart pump blood is doing well at a hospital at the University of Michigan here.

Anthony Shannon, 62, of Livonia, MI, spoke to the media at his hospital bed Tuesday, six days after receiving the high-tech DuraHeart. "My doctor told me this is the best way to go," the former director of homeland security for Wayne County told the Free Press, referring to the device

- The first double arm transplant has been performed in a 16-hour surgery by a team of 30 surgeons in a Munich hospital.

A 54-year old man who lost both arms in a farming accident six years ago was given the arms of a 19-year-old who is thought to have died in a car crash

The medical director of the Transplantation Society urged Canada on Wednesday to overhaul its organ donation system. Dr. Francis Delmonico said the system needed to be changed to alleviate the growing number of Canadians who die waiting for an organ donor.

Delmonico urged Canadian hospitals to assess every death for its potential as organ donor and to notify organ donation institutions. At the same time, he stressed the value of a structure and database to match patients in need of organs and donors