The Importance Of Organ Transplants

The surgical removal of an organ or tissue from one person and placing it into another person. That is the definition of organ transplantation, one of the most important surgical procedures to date. It is necessary for human life to be sustained in today’s world. The need for organs continues to grow, however, the supply does not grow with it. Whether it be because there are more irritants to cause organ failure, or a lack of donors, it’s hard to tell which may be impacting more. Every day in the United States, around 20 people die waiting for organ transplant. Every 10 minutes, another person is added to the waiting list. There are currently 114,959 people actively awaiting a transplant, but by the time this paper is finished, there will

Brain death is declared when a severe head trauma takes place that permanently cuts off blood flow to the brain. This condition is unrepairable. At this point, the harvest teams only have a few hours to get consent from the family of the deceased and harvest the organs. They can only stay healthy for a few hours because machines are doing all the work, not the body and the brain. Brain death tends to be a touchy subject, and people like to argue that the patient is not actually brain dead, but the doctors are very sure to do every test correctly to be positive the potential donor is brain dead. After the donor is declared brain dead, the organs are input into an online database where a recipient is found. First, the top priorities on the waiting list are compared with the donor’s genes to see if the organs are a match. The first person to match with the organ they need will get it. They recipient’s hospital will send a team to harvest the organ and bring it to the hospital while the recipient is prepared for surgery. This is usually the protocol for a deceased donor, however, live donors usually donate to a person they

This is mostly because of the recipient’s body rejecting it. The patient takes anti-rejection medication, but sometimes that is not enough. There are two types of rejection: acute and chronic. Acute rejection is fairly common, and will usually occur during the first year following the transplant. That can easily be cured by upping the dose of immunosuppressants the patient was taking. However, acute rejection can lead to chronic rejection, which can result in a lost organ. Signs of rejection include: pain at the site of the transplant, crankiness, flu-like symptoms, fever, weight changes, swelling, change in heart rate, and urinating less