First Heart Transplant

The medical practice of organ transplantation has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 50 years. Each year the medical profession takes more risk with decisions regarding transplants, how to allocate for organs, and most recently conducting transplants on children with adult organs. “An organ transplantation is a surgical operation where a failing or damaged organ in the human body is removed and replaced with a new one” (Caplan, 2009). Not all organs can be transplanted. The term “organ transplant” typically refers to transplants of solid organs: heart, kidneys, liver, pancreas, and intestines. There are two ways of receiving an organ transplant: from a living human or an organ from a

Now that organ transplantation has become a popular medical solution to end-stage organ failure, about every 10 minutes another person in need of an

     Recently, the low numbers of human donor organs and short term mechanical “organ” replacements have given cause for

Two hours to transplant this heart, BP 140/90 mmHg, life or death and it is all in my hands. “Scalpel”. It takes many attributes to become and maintain the occupation of a cardiovascular surgeon. Such as the amount of schooling it will require, the amount of emotional stability it will take to pursue this career, lastly dealing with the loss of a patient. Cardiovascular surgery is a challenging but rewarding career to be interested in or be a part of. Amidst researching Cardiovascular surgeons and answering my questions, to soon realize the answers were met with more questions. I came across a book called Advice for a young surgeon by John C. Hall. Which offered great first-hand information on the daily life of a Surgeon and starting your career. Also numerous other interviews and articles. My aim by the end

“In 1984, Baby Fae received a baboon heart at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California, and she lived for 20 days. After the failed chimpanzee transplant, Dr. Hardy continued research, and in 1987 his team transplanted a pair of lungs into a 29-year-old patient, leaving the heart in place.” Cooley. Many people did not agree with animal organs being in there bodies. The event brought criticism from all quarters—legal, ethical, moral, religious, financial, and governmental. On January 23,196, Boyd Rush, the patient Hardy has identified as a heart recipient, was dying of heart failure. Because of difficulties in obtaining a donor human heart, however, Hardy decided to proceed with a chimpanzee’s heart, which beat for ninety minutes before failing. Hardy then had prepared himself for a certain amount of criticism, but he thought most of it would come from the general public. He was defamed at national surgical meetings and his clinical works was questioned. The criticism omitted after Journal of the American Medical Association published a June 1964 paper where Hardy detailed the strict guidelines he used in selecting both donor and recipient, his work in the labs leading up to transplant, and the strong scientific basis for the act. A national moratorium on organ transplantation followed Hardy’s heart transplant because doctors still has to overcome the problem of organ rejection, but his pioneering work played a vital role

Most heart transplants are done on patients who have end-stage heart failure, a condition in which your heart is severely damaged or weakened, and on people who have failed other treatment options. End-stage heart failure may be caused by conditions such as coronary heart disease, viral infections, or hereditary conditions. In rare instances, heart transplant may be performed at the same time as lung transplant in patients who have severe heart and lung disease.

“Every twelve minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list” (Donate life America, 2009) (para. 1&2). The National Center for Health Statistics (2008) website states “652,051 people die every year of heart disease, 75,119 die of diabetes, 43,901 die of nephritis, nephritic syndrome, and nephrosis [kidney disease].”

The incidence of heart failure is between 2 to 5 per 1000 cases in the USA. Males are more likely to have heart failure with a 5.64 per 1000 incidence as compared to 3.27 for their female counterparts. The rate of those with heart failure increases with age, 8.4% for those above age 75. The African-American community also has a high prevalence of heart failure (Pham, 2016). There is also a large racial disparity between African-American heart transplant recipients and the patients of other ethnicities. According to Tracie White from Sanford Medicine, the adjusted mortality rates from 2002-2005 were 24% for whites and 33.7% for African-Americans. The research indicated that African-American heart transplant patients were most likely to die from a cardiovascular event or a graft failure. This is different from all other races in which infection or malignancy are the leading causes of death for them (White,

“Without the organ donor, there is no story, no hope, and no transplant. But when there is an organ donor, life springs from death, sorrow turns to hope, and a terrible loss becomes a gift.” –UNOS

Do your own heart transplant is not without risk, even risk accepted is very high anyway. Like the failed operation that can lead to death. Organ rejection, because our body terhadapa sensitivity to foreign bodies make antibodies or immune will immediately react when the heart is already installed in the body, when not monitored intensively could have heart which had just installed this ruined, therefore a specialist is usually already set up medication to suppress the immune system so the body doesn't attack the system of organ donors. The use of these drugs supress immuno even also have side effects that are no less terrible,

I may find myself on my death bed, and in need of a transplant. It’s now 2017, and I feel confident that if I needed to undergo transplant surgery at this time, it would be a successful mission. By the time I get to the mid stages of my life, technology will only be more advanced. Medications used for the transplant process will be more reliable, the computer programs matching donors with recipients will be more accurate, and the trial and error rate is increasing each day. I am thankful for technology and all the time doctors, coordinators, and researchers have put into possibly giving someone more time. Life is

Xenotransplantation is the process where organs, tissue or living cells are transplanted between two species. In this case it is a heart transplant between a human and a pig. There are many issues that need to be overcome when it comes to xenotransplantation, as it is still in the preclinical stage. The two biggest issues are cross-species infection and transplant rejection (University of Walkato , 2011). For this process usually pigs are preferred compared to chimpanzees that are more similar

On the other hand, it might be argued that, artificial heart should not be used for several reasons. Firstly, each device is approximately, $300,000, which is extremely expensive and will only save the lives of few people, while by spending the same amount of money by increasing preventive programs; it is more likely to save more people (Caplan 2014). For instance, if artificial heart was provided for each person with heart disease, it would be billions of dollars for the healthcare budget (Caplan 2014). In addition, Dr Caplan at the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Langone Medical Center points out, “Artificial heart is not something you install and forget about; they require maintenance and check-ups” (Caplan 2014, Para 6). Other reason

Before the invention of the pacemaker and other technologies, scientists and doctors alike were concerned with understanding one of the most complex organs in the human body, the heart. By the 1900s, open-heart surgery was quickly becoming one of the most rapidly growing fields for upcoming surgeons. Even though surgeons were able to perform open-heart surgeries on those who needed it, what was supposed to happen to those whose hearts were failing completely? Fortunately, the aspirations of one doctor would provide an answer to that question in the form of an unthinkable surgical procedure. The name of that doctor was Christiaan Neethling Barnard.

In the United States the demand for hearts for patients needing transplants outweighs those who actually receive one. A Path Toward Animal-to-Human Transplants, by Craig Hicks, explains a current project that is being explored that could address the issue. Muhammad Mansoor Mohiuddin is the chief of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes (NHLBI), who explains that, “At any given time, about 3,000 people are on the waiting list for a heart transplant but only 2,000 donor hearts become available each year” (Hicks). He goes on to explain how there will never be enough human organs to supply the demand and that means there will be many people who will die before ever receiving the necessary