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Coronary Artery Disease

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Heart disease, also known as the “silent killer”, is one of the most common causes of death worldwide, though many people live with this disease for many years without knowing it. Types of heart diseases include coronary artery disease, cardiomyopath, valvular heart disease, pericardial disease, and congenital heart disease. The most common type of heart disease is coronary artery disease. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is when the arteries that supplies blood for the heart muscle gradually hardens and thickens (artherosclorosis) because of the buildup from salt, fat, cholesterol and other substances (plaque) on their inner walls. This process leaves the heart with a lack of oxygen and blood, forcing it to work harder (high blood …show more content…

In other words, less than 1% of the people who die are brain dead. A person who is brain dead means he/she has an irreversible damage in the brain, causing the brain to lose its functions. There are two definitions of death in Australia. One of them refers to brain death, and the other is defined as, “Irreversible cessation of circulation of the blood (cardiac death-the heart stops forever)”.

Before a heart may be taken from an organ donor, his/her family would have to give consent under very short circumstances. This is a very hard decision for families to make because many people fantasize about brain dead people coming back to life again. Many people have these thoughts, because a person who is brain dead may seem perfectly normal while lying on the hospital bed with normal skin colour and continuous breathing.

If the donor’s family agrees to donate his/her heart, a transplant may be performed within a few hours. The drawback after a heart transplant is that the new heart may be rejected by the immune system or other organs, causing the immune system to send out antibodies to destroy the new heart. Rejections of the heart may lead to symptoms like dizziness, vomiting, chest pain, shortness of breath and fever above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

One of the biggest problems about organ transplants is the number of people who are

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