Can a living person have a heart transplant?
Well, it's well-established that a person can indeed receive a heart transplanted from another person.Now there is one scenario where a patient can actually donate a heart and survive, called the “domino procedure”, where a donor heart and lungs were given to one patient with bad lungs, who then donated their good heart to another needing just a heart.I know we did this back in the early nineties, and it is still being done today.I trained at an advance Heart transplant Center where we did the very 1st “bridge to transplant” procedure in 1985 using a portable externally-supported artificial heart, The Jarvik 7, developed by a dentist from Phoenix.Dr. Jack Copeland is an excellent Cardiac Surgeon who pioneered many transplant advancements.
My sister needs a heart transplant?
You cannot donate your heart if your still alive. No doctor would perform that surgery. Don't kill you self or anything just because you want to give your sister your heart. Imagine how much guilt she would have knowing that you had to die for her to live. You just have to hope that she gets a heart from somebody that is already dead.
How much does liver transplant cost?
The usual cost of medications (drugs and disposables) alone for a liver transplant would be to the tune of around 10–14 lakh INR. Fro centers doing large numbers that number is likely to come down. In govt hospitals like PGIMER, KEM Mumbai, etc the cost would come to around 8.5 - 9 lakh. AIIMs and PGI usually give an estimate of 10lakh +/-.One can safely assume that it would cost between 10–12 lakh to 25–30 lakh, depending on the status of the patient. Very sick patients usually require more money. Emergency liver transplants for fulminant liver failure would cost around 5 lakh more depending on the degree of ICU care that is needed before and after the transplant.After the transplant the patient would need to continue immunosuppressive medication (anti-rejection) for the rest of their lives. The cost of that would be to the tune of 10–12 thousand per month initially, which would reduce over a period of 1–2 years to around 3–4 thousand a month. One would also have to factor in the costs of monitoring graft function continued physician contact.
How long does a heart last? For example, a 6-year-old gets a heart that was once beaten in an 80-year-old. She dies at 80 and then the heart can be given to another 6-year-old? Can it only be transplanted once?
Once a heart is transplanted into someone, regardless of how perfect of a match it may be, the body it’s implanted into begins to reject it. The person receiving the implant must take anti-rejection medications. Depending on how long it takes for their body to reject the heart, the heart will only last in their body for so long. This is typically anywhere from 5–15 years. After that, the person must again wait for another transplant. I doubt there would be any case where a heart could be re-transplanted.
Failed Organ Transplant Stories?
I'm not sure you can find exactly what you are looking for on this sites/places , but I think they would be a good place to start. www.transplantlving.org www.transplantcafe.com (you can email individual people there) or post your request www.donatelife.net - go that site, and then locate the chapter that covers your state, and try to call them. It's very possible that they can direct you to someone who is willing to talk. And you might want to set up a daily google news alert & use something like "waiting list" as the search criteria. Here is the last story on a 3 year old girl in Kansas who died waiting for a heart Perhaps the family will speak to you if you can contact them. I know there was a heart somewhere for a child, but no one cared enough to have it donated & save a second family from this kind of terrible ending. http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/dec/12... THANK YOU for promoting donation.
Can I donate my heart while I am alive to a dying relative, or do I need to kill myself first?
You obviously couldn't donate your heart while you're alive. Doctors aren't going to kill you in order to donate your heart to a loved one, and you really wouldn't be able to ensure that your organs would be donated to your relative. UNOS decides objectively to whom organs are donated based on the severity of the condition, when they entered the transplant registry, and compatibility with the organ tissues. If your relative isn't next in line to receive the organs, they won't get the organ. Additionally, you can't just put anyone's organs in someone else. It would be necessary to match their blood type and antibodies, so you couldn't be sure that you're even a match, and they certainly wouldn't test you since you couldn't be a living donor. Most forms of suicide damage your organs, so you wouldn't be able to donate anyway. For people who die under suspicious circumstances, as would likely be the case with a suicide, the person's body must be evaluated and autopsied by the Medical Examiner, so you wouldn't be a candidate for organ donation in that case either. Most importantly, in order for organs to be transplanted, they must be perfused and that can't happen once you die. If you were to kill yourself, your organs would die along with you, and they wouldn't be viable to transplant.Basically, you couldn't donate your heart. I know you mean well and it's hard to face the reality of your relative's mortality, but you really can't help them in this way.
Do doctors accept hearts from living donors? Could a person ‘give their life’ by donating their heart, dying in the process? Is this legal?
Yes, although it’s very rare, and the donor doesn’t die in the process (which would be WAY illegal), but donates their own heart AFTER receiving a heart from a donor who died."The first thing Linda Karr asked her doctor after her heart transplant surgery at Stanford Hospital was, “How is my heart donor doing?”"That question is as exceptionally rare as the surgery that made it possible. On Feb. 1, as part of a “domino” procedure, Karr received the heart of Tammy Griffin, who received a new heart and lungs from a deceased donor."Organs available for transplant are in short supply. Heart-lung combinations are even more rare because a set of heart and lungs is usually split up so that the organs can benefit two people instead of just one. Domino transplantation of a heart-lung and heart does, however, benefit two people. A highly unusual procedure, it has only been performed at Stanford eight times before, last in 1994.For Griffin, who has cystic fibrosis, receiving new lungs was critical. Her lung capacity had diminished so much that she was on oxygen full time, unable to do much at all. She had so little energy that she couldn’t get through a shower without sitting down to rest.Her heart, however, was still functioning well. “Her heart was an innocent bystander pushed out of its normal position in the middle of the lungs as her right lung shrank and the left one expanded,” said Joseph Woo, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Stanford Health Care who oversaw and coordinated the surgical teams that conducted the domino procedure.That displacement made a heart-lung transplant the only viable option for Griffin, said Woo, who is also professor and chair of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford School of Medicine."Living heart donation
Can I be a living heart donor?
Even this wonderful thought of a wonderful daughter should be enough to cure her father of any heart problem. This thought speaks volumes about your love and concern for your father. (I have a daughter of your age and am speaking from my own experience.) Unlike kidneys, there is only one heart and, while theoretically it may be possible to swap hearts, practically it will not be! At least, I have not heard of any such attempts made to surgically swap hearts. If someone tries, it would be from an animal to a human and not from a human to human!