First Penis Transplant, Part II

Talking about the transplanted penis being rejected, the New Scientist's Short Sharp Science blog reports that psychological rejection is a common and not a surprising problem among people who receive transplants from dead donors. The report goes on to say that "if you were the partner of such a transplantee, it would be pretty spooky to be caressed by the hand of a dead person. Now imagine if it was an even more intimate organ. The psychological problems of accepting someone else’s penis would be considerable."

In 2001, surgeons had to amputate the first hand transplant because the patient, Clint Hallam, a 50-year-old New Zealander, had become "mentally detached" from it. Hallam lost his hand in circular-saw accident in 1984 while in Rolleston prison where he was serving time for fraud. Surgeons reattached his own severed hand but it didn't take, and so subsequently his hand had to be amputated. Then, on 23 September 1998, A surgeons led by Australian Professor Earl Owen transplanted a new hand in a 13-hour long operation in Lyon, France. The operation was successful and Hallam could move and even write with the fingers of the new hand but over two years later he developed psychological problems and stopped taking his immunosuppressive drugs. The hand was then amputated on 3 February 2002.
Jean-Michel Dubernard, the French surgeon who performed the world's first face transplant on Isabelle Dinoire who had been attacked by a dog acknowledged this problem in his paper outlining the first face transplant performed on November 27, 2005. "...it is not so easy to use and see permanently a dead person's hands, nor is it easy to look in a mirror to see a dead person's face," he wrote in the journal.
Source:

• Hand amputee images: Professor Earl Owen, Various Uses of Microsurgery, Hand Transplantation
• Preoperative, premauling image and Postoperative image of Isabelle Dinoire, Wikipedia

First penis transplant, rejected

London's Guardian reports that Chinese surgeons who performed the world's first penis transplant had to remove the new organ after two weeks because the recipient and his wife developed psychological problems. An accident had left the 44-year-old with a 1cm-long stump with which he was unable to urinate and have sexual intercourse. With a severely affected quality of life, surgeons at China's Guangzhou General Hospital, spent 15 hours attaching a 10cm penis to the patient after the parents of a brain-dead man half his age agreed to donate their son's organ. The procedure required complex microsurgery to connect nerves and tiny blood vessels and is said to represent a big leap forward in transplant surgery. Doctors have previously succeeded in reuniting men with their sexual organs after traumatic accidents or attacks, but this operation is the first in which a donor penis had successfully been attached to another man. Although the operation was a surgical success, tests after 10 days revealing that the organ had a rich blood supply and the man was able to function normally, surgeons said they had to remove the penis two weeks later. "Because of a severe psychological problem of the recipient and his wife, the transplanted penis regretfully had to be cut off," Dr Hu said. An examination of the organ showed no signs of it being rejected by the body.

PS. Sorry no picture available, yet!

Computers decide on Death Sentence!

In a bid to stop corrupt judges, the Daily Mail reports that Chinese courts are using computers to decide who should face death sentences! Computers equipped with a large legal database of Chinese law and case precedents and a program, dubbed the 'penalty calculator', are being used by judges to determinine sentences for 100 different crimes including murder, rape, stealing petrol, tax evasion and stealing state secrets which are punishable by death by firing squad in the communist nation. According to the Daily Mail report, over the past two years the system has been used to determine sentences in 1,500 cases in a trial run in China's eastern Shandong province. The program is now being extended to other provincial courts and may eventually be used in courtrooms across the nation of 1.3 billion, where more criminals are put to death than anywhere else in the world. Chief judge Wang Hongmei said: 'The software can avoid abuse of the discretionary power of judges as a result of corruption or trial training.'

How's this Roomba Control

I can see the day not too far away in the distant future when we'll be able to sit back her in God's waiting room with our bluetooth controllers and watching and controlling various machines, robots doing the house work. Can we handle this?

Amazing!!!!

Like most you've no doubt seen many buskers in your time. Busking is the practice of performing in public places to receive donations of money. Aren't some buskers just amazing. What do you think of this amazing busker? Unfortunately it is slow to load but well worth it I think. Have you seen any amazing buskers in your travels?

Jackass Number Two - Trailer

A movie to see....

Women sues over her right to sex!

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The Shanghai Daily reported yesterday that a Chinese court rejected a woman's 220,000 yuan ($27,650) claim for compensation for her sex life, which was ruined when her husband was injured in a workplace accident at a shopping center.

The husband stumbled and hit his genitals on the corner of some audio equipment (ooouch) when an iron bar fell from a vent and knocked his head while he was working in the shopping center.

The woman says that she was 30 when her husband had the accident and that since then her husband has suffered from erectile dysfunction, depriving her of her right to enjoy sexual life. The compensation included claims for mental anguish and for her purchases of products such as vibrators.