heart transplants?

Question

anyone out there knowledgable on this? i'm curious to know, what goes into the desicion as to who gets higher on the list?

Answer 1

When a doctor determines his patient may be a candidate for a transplant, he submits their name to the transplant registry. They get the name, blood type and genetic info they need to make an organ match, along with info like male/female, age, size/weight, and other pertinant medical information. They use a matrix to determine how critical the need is, and determine a priority from that. When an organ becomes available, they can pull up a listing of possible matches. Depending on where the organ to be transplanted is available at, and the closest critical patient's location, they will then notify the hospital that they have a potential match and offer the organ to them. It's not a matter of a list of folks in numerical order entirely. If you have a kidney on the east coast, transport time makes it difficult to get to Hawaii in time for sucessful surgery- so that organ would be offered to a patient in the east if possible. They also have to consider the size of the organ- because obviously a newborn can't use adult size lungs or heart. And a fully grown man can't use a heart from a 2 year old. Then there is the matter of blood type, which must match. So there is a lot that goes into determining who gets what organ, and even if you are in critical need, why an organ might be offered to somebody who doesn't seem to be in as bad shape. And all these decisions have to be made in a fairly short period of time. But the folks doing the matching don't know who exactly the organ is going to-they only have the medical info, so they don't have any reason to make the decision on anything except the medical criteria. Hope this clears some for you.

Answer 2

I hate to say, but, I kinda agree with LittleBarb above. They say it illegal to sell body parts, but, I really feel that a little cash under the table to juggle a few papers does go on. I feel sad I have to believe this way, but, I see it too much in every part of society. :-(
I did list myself as a donor. Not sure that really do anything as I think they only have so much time to retrieve organs. But, if you need my heart, maybe I can Will it to you? ;-)

Answer 3

The Untied Network for Organ Sharing is the USA's only organ procurement network. Please see there website for more info. Specifically go to www.UNOS.com, click on resources, than on policies. There are PDF files telling you all you want to know. Good Luck!

Answer 4

a person's overall health, age, severity of the heart disease, life expectancy, and UNFORTUNATELY, money--- the money part isn't ALWAYS a factor but in a FEW cases, transplant patients HAVE been moved up the list BECAUSE they had money......

Answer 5

im a kidney tranplant receipient, i know one aunt of mine underwent heart transplant in US and doing very good now....