CHICAGO — It turns out you can recycle just about anything these days — even kidneys and other organs donated for transplants.
In what is believed to be the first documented case of its kind in the U.S., a transplanted kidney that was failing was removed from a patient while he was still alive and given to somebody else. The Illinois man is back on dialysis and will probably get another transplant eventually.
There have been other cases since the 1980s of transplant organs being used more than once, but they were rare and involved instances in which the first recipient died.
Typically when transplanted organs fail in living patients, doctors throw them away. But with more than 73,000 people awaiting transplants nationwide, some specialists say doctors should consider trying to reuse more organs.
