First Ever Uterus Transplant in the US Fails; Will America's First Penis Transplantation Suffer the Same Fate?
The woman who had the first uterus transplant in the US had the organ removed despite being just introduced earlier this week. She had to have it removed due to complications, Cleveland Clinic announced Wednesday.
The 26-year-old woman, who is only identified as Lindsey, received the transplant on Feb. 24 and had a brief news conference on Monday. At that time, the doctors said that she was recovering. However, a complication made the doctor remove the donated uterus and the hospital is trying to find out what went wrong. Cleveland Clinic did not provide any information about the complications.
US' First Uterus Transplant Failed
The removal surgery occurred just a couple of days after she was introduced at this week's news conference. Cleveland Clinic posted a press release on their website saying that Lindsey was recovering.
"I just wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude towards all of my doctors. They acted very quickly to ensure my health and safety," Lindsey said in a statement. "Unfortunately I did lose the uterus to complications. However, I am doing okay and appreciate all of your prayers and good thoughts."
Lindsey was the first of 10 planned experimental uterine transplants by Cleveland Clinic. It is aimed to be another alternative for women born without a uterus who do not want to adopt or undergo surrogacy in order to have children.
The hospital is working closely with doctors from Sweden as they are one of the other countries who reported successful live births in 2014 after doing transplants, Washington Post reports. However, Cleveland only intends to use the organs from deceased donors.
Will the First Penis Transplant in the US Fail Too?
A team from Johns Hopkins is preparing to do the first penis transplant on a retired US soldier who was wounded in the line of duty. Latinos Health reports that the penis transplant is not the first in the world as it has already been successfully done on a South African man in 2014. Unfortunately, the Chinese man's penis transplant in 2006 was unsuccessful.
Like the uterus transplant, there are many factors and circumstances that need to be noted when doing penis transplants. Apart from doing compatibility tests between the donor and recipient through blood type, skin tone and age gap, recipients must also go through psychiatric evaluation.
Even with a successful penis transplantation, it is not guaranteed that the donated organ will work. The recipient's ability to urinate, have an erection and even have children will only be known in six to twelve months after the operation when the penis becomes functional.
Subscribe to Latin Post!
Sign up for our free newsletter for the Latest coverage!