A digest of Baltimore news from local sources.
From the Baltimore Sun: Johns Hopkins performs first transplants between donors, recipients infected with HIV
"Johns Hopkins Medicine has performed the nation's first liver and kidney transplants from a donor infected with HIV to recipients also infected with the virus, a triumph for one of the transplant surgeons, who fought for six years for federal approval of the life-saving surgery.
"Six years is longer than most patients spend on the transplant waiting list — and that was unacceptable to Dorry L. Segev. He watched in frustration as one HIV-infected patient after another died waiting for organs while available HIV-infected organs were being discarded because HIV-to-HIV transplants were prohibited.
"'It wasn't a medical issue,' Segev, an associate professor of surgery and epidemiology at Hopkins School of Medicine, said. 'It was entirely legal.'
"HIV was the only condition absolutely banned in the National Organ Transplant Act passed in 1984, when the AIDS epidemic was new and the virus was almost invariably fatal, not the treatable chronic disease it is now.
"But times and medicine changed, giving Segev the opening to champion an effort to overturn the ban. He and his colleagues made repeated trips to Capitol Hill to meet with any legislative assistant who would give them time and help them navigate the bureaucracy of Congress to persuade lawmakers that a change in policy was warranted.
"He conducted research, published in the American Journal of Transplantation in 2011, that 500 to 600 HIV-infected donors annually would be eligible to donate kidneys, livers and other organs if the prohibition were lifted, saving about 1,000 lives each year.
"Allowing the transplants also would shorten the waiting list for noninfected patients."
From the AFRO American and WEAA’s Sean Yoes: Police brutality trial re-focuses light on Tyrone West
"A civil trial against three Baltimore City police officers, who allegedly brutalized a Northeast Baltimore man during an arrest in 2013, began last week. Fate forever links that arrest to the death of a man while in police custody a few weeks later, who was a symbol of the Baltimore law enforcement reform movement, before Freddie Gray.
"On July 1, 2013 Abdul Salaam was nearing his home in Northeast Baltimore with his three-year old son in the back seat of his car, when he glimpsed an image in his rearview mirror most Black men loathe, a police vehicle approaching from behind.
"According to Salaam, the next few moments would quickly escalate from mere dread to his life being imperiled just steps from the sanctity of his home, while his little boy watched in horror.
"Salaam (who is the plaintiff in the civil case along with his young son), now 37, says police jumped from their vehicle with their guns drawn and began yelling at him. He says he put his hands out the window of his car holding his wallet and seconds later he was yanked from his car, dragged across the ground and dumped on his head, twice.
"By this time several of his neighbors had emerged from their homes to protest Salaam’s treatment and videotape the beating. Eventually, he was handcuffed and shackled and taken to Northeast police precinct and then to a hospital. He was charged with not wearing his seatbelt, talking on a cell phone while driving and (of course) disturbing the peace.
"In a court proceeding in October 2013, prosecutors didn’t pursue any of the charges by police. Salaam is alleging assault and battery, false arrest, false imprisonment and the violation of his civil rights as he seeks damages.
"As traumatic and life changing this ordeal has been for Salaam and his son, the deadly sequel connected to his arrest and alleged abuse in his backyard played out less than three weeks later on July 18, 2013. That was the day two of the three officers who arrested Salaam, Jorge Bernardez-Ruiz and Nicholas David Chapman initially engaged Tyrone West, 44, near an intersection in the 1300 block of Kitmore Road in Northeast Baltimore, not far from Salaam’s home.
"West died on that day after being beaten with batons, kicked, punched and maced by up to a dozen law enforcement officers, including Ruiz and Chapman during what has been described as a wild melee that escalated after a so-called, “routine,” traffic stop. West’s family members and others believe if Ruiz and Chapman had been disciplined — specifically assigned to desk duty — in the wake of the arrest and alleged assault of Salaam, West could be alive today. "
From the Washington Post: Maryland Senate panel sidelines tax-break proposals for manufacturers
"Maryland lawmakers will not vote this year on Gov. Larry Hogan’s plan to provide tax relief for manufacturers in the state.
"The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee this week sidelined proposals from Hogan (R) and Sen. Roger Manno (D-Montgomery) designed to boost the state’s manufacturing industry with tax breaks, agreeing to do so without an actual vote. Instead, members of the panel said they would not have enough time to work through concerns about the nearly identical bills before the end of the legislative session, which comes in less than two weeks.
"Hogan’s plan called for a 10-year exemption to the state’s corporate income tax for new manufacturers in high-unemployment areas, such as Baltimore, Western Maryland and the lower Eastern Shore. It also would have exempted employees of those companies who earn less than $65,000 a year from paying state income taxes during that period."