Lung Transplant

A healthy liver is a vital part of digesting food, filtering toxins from the bloodstream, producing important proteins and hormones, and just staying alive in general. Fortunately for humans, this organ has an incredible ability to repair itself when it is damaged by exposure to viruses, bacteria, or harmful toxins. Sadly, if the damage is too extensive, self-repair may not be possible.

In this case, there is nothing doctors can currently do to reverse the damage done; their best hope is to stop the spread of any damage. In the most severe cases, the patient may need a transplant from a healthy donor just to survive. Unfortunately, these surgeries are very expensive, difficult to arrange, and available only to people who meet specific requirements.

Who Is Eligible?

Healthy organs come from deceased people who volunteered to donate them, or from living people in certain circumstances. For example, a portion of a person’s liver can be transported from him or her to another person, allowing both of them to live. Despite this interesting technology, the number of people who need new organs far exceeds the number of organs available.

Because of this, hospitals must ration their resources by only performing transplants on the patients who are most likely to survive. The theory is that the medical care we can offer should be spent on those who will benefit from it most. At time same time, priority is given to people who are in immediate danger of dying if they do not undergo the operation.

A person may be found ineligible if he or she has a condition that is likely to make the procedure unsuccessful. Examples of such conditions include:

Metastasized (spread throughout the body) cancer Addiction to alcohol or other drugs Illness such as HIV or other life-threatening infections Co-morbid and likely terminal heart or lung conditions Severe brain injury associated with the original condition

While it is not necessarily impossible for a person with one of these conditions to receive a donated organ, his or her struggle will be much more difficult.

Aftereffects

After the surgery is complete, the patient still has a long recovery period in front of him or her. He or she will likely have a full regimen of medications to reduce the risk of infection and his or her body’s rejection of the new organ. It may also be three months or longer before he or she feels well enough to resume normal life activities.

Fortunately, the long-term survival rate for this procedure is high. Many people who have undergone it go on to live long and productive lives.

By: Joseph Devine

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