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Docs Astonished As Girl Grows New Kidneys

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CosmicSpork

Member
A girl has stunned doctors by growing two new kidneys to replace ones that had failed and left her seriously ill.

Five-year-old Angel Burton went for surgery after being beset by kidney problems since birth.

But surgeons at Sheffield Children's Hospital were astonished to find she had a pair of perfectly-formed organs sitting on top of the old ones.

Furthermore, the extra organs had taken over the work of the originals - so instead of suffering kidney failure, she could look forward to a bright, healthy future.

Angel's mum, Claire Burton, told the Daily Mail: "It's a real miracle. We're just so grateful to have Angel back to her happy, healthy self."

She said the surgeon told her he was "stunned" regular scanning over a five-year period had failed to pick up on the extra organs.

It is thought they were not detected as the new kidneys were sitting just above the originals and tests showed them as one.

Angel, from Louth in Lincolnshire, suffers from duplex kidney, a rare condition where the organs are fused together in the middle. They either share or have their own ureters taking urine to the bladder.

In an even rarer occurrence, both of the organs were duplex, giving her four kidneys and four ureters.

Angel's health deteriorated almost as soon as she was born.

After being diagnosed with bilateral reflux - which means urine was leaking into and infecting her kidneys - a scan had revealed the organs had been badly damaged.

It was during an operation to create an artificial valve in October 2007 that doctors found the extra kidneys.

Angel is now eight and on course to make a full recovery.
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http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Girl-Grows-Two-New-Kidneys-Angel-Burton-Set-For-Full-Recovery-After-Doctors-Find-Extra-Organs/Article/201005315634080?lpos=UK_News_Third_UK_News_Article_Teaser_Region__1&lid=ARTICLE_15634080_Girl_Grows_Two_New_Kidneys%3A_Angel_Burton_Set_For_Full_Recovery_After_Doctors_Find_Extra_Organs

Sounds like evolution to me ;) It's about time we started growing backup organs! :p
 
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CosmicSpork

Member
Obviously the whole thing has been sensationalised to sell newspapers, it's a miracle, she was always going to have these extra kidneys but still :)
 
C

Case

Active Member
Odd how some people seem to see disadvantageous anomalies as mutations but beneficial mutations as miracles.
 
S

Squawk

Active Member
I'm presuming nobody here is going to count this as a beneficial mutation...

Pretty cool story though. shit to begin with, but excellent that she can now have a full life to look forward to.
 
C

CosmicSpork

Member
Squawk said:
I'm presuming nobody here is going to count this as a beneficial mutation...
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Probably not, but it has potential ;) now that she will survive she may go on to produce a child with a better version :p like 4 working kidneys! Or 2 livers! What with all the binge drinking nowadays I'm sure that'd come in handy lol
 
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MRaverz

Active Member
CosmicSpork said:
Squawk said:
I'm presuming nobody here is going to count this as a beneficial mutation...
Click to expand...
Probably not, but it has potential ;) now that she will survive she may go on to produce a child with a better version :p like 4 working kidneys! Or 2 livers! What with all the binge drinking nowadays I'm sure that'd come in handy lol
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You make a good point about the two livers, but maybe that's something we don't want to go public. haha
After all, alcohol still damages the brain & people are dumb enough. :D
 
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Case

Active Member
The liver is actually quite famous for its regenerative capacity (Michalopoulos & DeFrances, 1997), so...
 
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MRaverz

Active Member
Case said:
The liver is actually quite famous for its regenerative capacity (Michalopoulos & DeFrances, 1997), so...
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Only to a certain degree and not with all parts of the liver as far as I can recall.
 
D

Demojen

Member
I speculate that this problem started in development of the livers as the cells were still mutating. The child at a young age would still be developing and the new livers developed after the old faulty livers.

This might be a hint for doctors seeking to repair damage to cells in vitro using stem cells to effectively reboot malfunctioning developing mutated cells.
 
E

Eban

Member
It's a pretty crap miracle that damn near kills you. My tachycardia stopped my heart once, it restarted on it's own. I don't count that as a miracle. Hell I was technically dead for about 10 seconds there. Praise be to Eban, for he is good. Just need to waltz on water now.

Be interesting to see if her children share this mutation.
 
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