In 1998, Clint Hallam, a New Zealander who had amputated his own hand with a chainsaw, became the first man in the world to receive a hand transplant, at a hospital in Lyon, France. The limb belonged to a young motorcyclist who had died in a traffic accident. The operation was an unprecedented medical success, but a tragic human failure. Three years later, after repeated requests, his transplanted hand was removed at a clinic in London. It bothered him; he felt mentally disconnected from it.

I read in the NOW Carmen's storyCarmen, who, while traveling in the Canary Islands, suffered an infection "that caused necrosis in the tissues of her face and left her completely disabled." She couldn't speak, eat, or drink. After three unsuccessful stints in intensive care, Dr. Joan-Pere Barret, head of the Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit at Vall d'Hebron Hospital, proposed a face transplant, a difficult and cutting-edge procedure. "Now I don't mind going out, I can eat again, I can drink coffee. I'm back to living a normal life," she said.

Before arriving at Vall d'Hebron, Carmen had only heard the word No when a doctor visited her. While traveling in the Canary Islands, she suffered an infection that caused necrosis of the facial tissues, leaving her completely incapacitated. She couldn't eat or drink, she couldn't breathe properly, and she was disfigured. "Physically, it was quite unpleasant," recalls the patient, who went through three different intensive care units (ICUs) without any alternative until she met Joan-Pere Barret, head of the Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit at Vall d'Hebron Hospital, who proposed a face transplant. "It was the only solution for me to be able to lead a normal life again; Dr. Barret is my guardian angel," says the patient, her voice filled with emotion, four months after the operation. "Now I don't mind going out, I can eat again, I can drink coffee. I'm back to living a normal life," explains Carmen. A face transplant is a very complex procedure, and only six have been performed in the entire country, half of them at Vall d'Hebron. In fact, the Catalan hospital became the first center in the world to perform a full face transplant in 2010. This time, it was the world's first partial face transplant, with a donor who underwent euthanasia and decided to donate her organs and tissues, including her face.

In 2022, American surgeons successfully transplanted a genetically edited pig's heart into a man, who survived for approximately two months. In 2024, also in the United States, the same procedure was performed on a kidney, also extending the life of a 62-year-old man by two months. And the same year, Chinese doctors grafted a transgenic pig liver into a brain-dead person as part of a clinical trial. Now, researchers at Guangzhou Medical University (China) have taken a further step towards advancing interspecies transplants (xenotransplants): they have managed to graft a laboratory-modified pig lung into a human that was functional for a period of nine days. The team of Chinese thoracic surgeon Jianxing He and the Chinese company Clonorgan Biotechnology led the research, published this Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.

The first public fecal microbiota bank in the country has been established in Catalonia. The Department of Health launched it this Wednesday to treat patients with recurrent infections caused by a bacteria called Clostridioides difficile, This disease causes severe intestinal damage that, in some cases, can be life-threatening. In these cases, those affected require a fecal microbiota transplant for recovery. In 90% of cases, it is achieved without relapse. This intervention is now part of the public health portfolio, benefiting around 200 people each year. Therefore, the department is calling on the public to find "committed" stool donors to treat these people who have no therapeutic alternative to transplants.

Australia is a destination for many young Catalans who finish their studies and are eager to travel, learn English, and work. This is the case for Joan Escolà, a 21-year-old graduate student in marketing and advertising who already has his sights set on the vast Pacific island. But unlike other young people, before deciding to embark on this experience, he had to consult with his referring hepatologist about whether he could do so.

The first documented interspecies transplant (xenotransplant) in the world dates back 120 years, but it wasn't until a few decades ago that it was seriously tested to become a therapeutic option for humans. Pigs are the most commonly used animal to test the procedure, among other reasons, so that their organs are similar in size to those of humans. Until now They have been made from heart and kidney, but it is one of the most complex medical procedures in existence and the current survival rate is really low. But the scientific community does not stop: a team of researchers from China has made the first genetically modified pig liver graft, with six altered genes to prevent rejection, in a brain-dead person. The procedure was performed last year, and this Wednesday the journal Nature has published its evaluation. To put it simply, the review confirms that the human body did not reject the organ and that it survived and functioned virtually normally for 10 days after surgery.

Organ transport is a critical process in the donation and transplant system, where speed and precision can make the difference between life and death. In this context, Vueling, an airline part of the IAG group, has established itself as a key player in transplant logistics in Spain. Since 2013, the company has carried out more than 1,000 organ transfers in collaboration with the National Transplant Organization (ONT), making it the airline that transports the most organs to the country.

Anas was born with a heart defect: instead of two ventricles, he only had one. When he was just a few months old, he had to undergo surgery. Doctors performed up to three surgeries to ensure his quality of life and the proper blood supply to his entire body. In the final operation, they disconnected some veins from his heart and connected them to the pulmonary artery, ensuring blood flow to his lungs. This technique is known as Fontan surgery, named after the doctor who invented it. Thanks to this procedure, he was able to lead a normal life: he went to school, played with his friends, and played sports. However, at age 13, his blood flow began to slow down, he stopped going to school because he couldn't leave the house, and some organs, such as his liver and intestines, began to suffer.