One Lucky Little Boy

All I can say about this is wow.

Elijah Moulton is doing well after receiving a liver, small bowel, pancreas, colon and stomach during the seven-hour procedure July 10 at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, doctors said.

He was born with total intestinal atresia, a malformation of the entire gastrointestinal tract that makes eating impossible.

Dr. Mercedes Martinez said at a news conference Friday that the boy would probably be moved to a rehab center on Monday, where he will spend as many as six weeks learning to eat. His release was delayed a few days because he was having difficulty breathing.

"He's doing so well right now," Martinez said. "He's gorgeous. He's looking around and smiling."

My prayers are going up for this young man.

Fred Thompson has Treatable Cancer

Fred announced today on RedState that he has a relatively benign form of cancer, which according to his doctor is in remission. It's still cancer, but is very treatable and should not affect his life expectancy at all.

Several commentators believe that his announcement is another step on the road to a formal candidacy, and I tend to agree. One doesn't release this sort of stuff unless there's a good reason.

Captain Ed says that his sources are telling him Fred wanted to get this out into the open to gauge the reaction of his supporters and because he didn't want people to be blindsided with this during his proposed campaign. If true (and while I trust Captain Ed, anyone can make a mistake), that's a good sign for those of us excited about the prospect of a Fred Thompson campaign.

Hat Tip: Wizbang.

Update and bump: Former Senator Bill Frist... also known as Bill Frist, M. D., weighs in on Thompson's announcement:

This morning Fred Thompson, my good friend and colleague of many years, made it known that he has slow-growing marginal zone lymphoma - a disease that has never made him physically ill and for which he has a good prognosis, according to his doctor.

In my view, this disclosure indicates his seriousness as a potential candidate. He's a dedicated public servant with true conservative credentials, extraordinary communications skills and a devotion to his principles.

I hope you'll continue to post your statements encouraging Fred to run so that I can share them with him and other supporters across the country.

I am not only encouraging Fred to run, I am praying for his health to remain good.

And Now for Something Non-Political

The geek in me just loves this kind of story:

A scientific breakthrough could help alleviate blood shortages and reduce the danger of accidental blood-type mismatches, researchers and executives for a U.S. biotech firm said yesterday.

An international team of scientists announced that it has found a way to convert Types A, B, and AB blood into Type O -- the universal donor blood group that can be given to anyone -- and the American company that commissioned the research said such "universally transfusible" blood has the potential to solve problems associated with storing, transporting and transfusing blood.

"The prospects for this are huge ... since blood now must be transfused on a group-specific basis," Douglas L. Clibourn, chief executive officer of ZymeQuest, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

The team of Danish, English and French researchers reported this week in the journal Nature Biotechnology that it isolated two bacterial enzymes that break down and remove the sugar molecules (antigens) on the surface of A, AB and B red blood cells that can cause potentially deadly immune reactions in patients transfused with mismatched blood.

Now, is that neat or what?