Word: transplanter
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...choice. But Benny's doctors would like to buy him some more time. Perhaps, they argue, they could figure a way to vary the amount of the antirejection drugs he is taking so the side effects are not quite so miserable. There is also the possibility of yet another transplant. The chances he could survive a year after a third operation, however, are generally considered to be less than 50%. "We proposed trying to rescue his liver," says Dr. Andreas Tzakis, head of liver transplantation at the University of Miami. "He refused." One thing is sure: as Benny loses weight...
Born with a malfunctioning liver, Benny underwent his first transplant at age 8. For five years, he took a drug called cyclosporin that prevented his body from rejecting the alien organ. When that medicine no longer worked, his doctors at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh performed a second transplant in 1992 and started him on what was then an experimental treatment called FK506. Given his long experience, he was probably better prepared than most people for the pain and discomfort antirejection drugs can sometimes cause. He had already outlived most of the children he had met in the hospital while...
Nevertheless, in the view of transplant experts, Benny had made a mistake. In some cases transplant patients can be weaned from their antirejection drugs, but it must be done under close medical supervision so doctors can intervene at the earliest sign of trouble. If Benny had bided his time, say doctors, he might have had a happier relationship with the transplanted organ. "The longer you have an organ, particularly the liver, the more it becomes a part of you, and you a part of it," says Dr. Andrew Klein, a liver- transplant specialist at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Transplant surgeons...
Tzakis has not given up hope that Benny may still change his mind. Several transplant recipients have volunteered to talk to the boy. But after a week spent dealing with lawyers and turning away phone calls from Nightline, People and other national media, Benny seemed weary. "Just tell them," he said, "I want to be left alone...
PHIL GRAMM. The Texas Senator is a powerful fund raiser and works tirelessly on behalf of G.O.P. candidates. Respected for his toughness and his ruthless resistance to federal spending, he remains abrasive and little liked. As a Reagan White House veteran put it, "Gramm hasn't had a personality transplant...