Picture this. A man is involved in a severe car crash in
Florida which has left him brain-dead with no hope for any kind of recovery. The majority of his vital organs are still functional and the man has designated that his organs be donated to a needy person upon his untimely death.
Meanwhile, upon checking with the donor registry board, it is discovered that the best match for receiving the heart of the Florida man is a male in Oregon who is in desperate need of a heart transplant. Without the transplant, the man will most certainly die within 48 hours. The second man's tissues match up perfectly with the brain-dead man's in
Florida. This seems like an excellent opportunity for a heart transplant. However, a transplant is currently not a viable option for the Oregon man since he is separated by such a vast geographic distance from the organ. Scientists and doctors are currently only able to keep a donor heart viable for four hours before the tissues become irreversibly damaged. Because of this preservation restriction, the donor heart is ultimately given to someone whose tissues do not match up as well, so there is a greatly increased chance for rejection of the organ by the recipient. As far as the man in Oregon goes, he will probably not receive a donor heart before his own expires.
Currently, when a heart is being prepared for transplantation, it is simply submerged in an isotonic saline ice bath in an attempt to stop all metabolic activity of that heart. This cold submersion technique is adequate for only four hours. However, if the heart is perfused with the proper media, it can remain viable for up to 24 hours.
The technique of perfusion is based on intrinsically simple principles. What occurs is a physician carefully excises the heart from the donor. He then accurately trims the vessels of the heart so they can be easily attached to the perfusion apparatus. After trimming, a cannula is inserted into the superior vena cava. Through this cannula, the preservation media can be pumped in.
What if this scenario were different? What if doctors were able to preserve the donor heart and keep it viable outside the body for up to 24 hours instead of only four hours? If this were possible, the heart in Florida could have been transported across the country to Oregon where the perfect
The development of the artificial heart began in the early 1950’s. The initial prototype, developed in 1970’s by the artificial developmental staff at the University of Utah, allowed 50 hours of sustained life in a sheep. Although this was called a success, the implantation of the artificial heart left the sheep in a weakened state. It wasn’t until late 1970’s and the early 1980’s where the improvement of the artificial heart actually received attention as a possible alternative to a heart transplant. The remodeled product of the early 1970’s did more than just the 50 hours of sustained life; it enabled the cow to live longer and to live a relatively normal life, with the exception of a machine attached to the animal.
Satel starts her essay with an appeal to emotion, detailing the shortage of organ transplants and the deaths that result. She emphasizes her personal struggle and desperation over the need of a kidney transplant. Unable to discover a match and dialysis soon approaching, she “wondered about going overseas to become a “transplant tourist”, but getting a black market organ seemed too risky.”(Satel, 128) She argues for a change in the United States donor system policy to mimic the European system of implied consent. Satel also argues for the implementation of an incentive system to compensate donors for their organs, in order to increase the amount of available donors in the system. Her argument has insignificant weaknesses in comparison to her strongly supported and validated points.
...ne article, The Troubling Shortage Of Organ Donors In The U.S., makes it well known that there is a huge shortage of organ donors throughout the united states. It emphasizes that the need for kidneys is bigger than the need for other organs. The number of people needed a kidney is triple the amount of the people that are receiving the kidneys. The article states, “Now the United Network for Organ Sharing is considering changing the rules for kidneys to be more like hearts, matching younger donors with younger recipients and also giving priority to the healthier patients” (Siegel). This view point will help defend my argument on seeing that we need to find a way to solve organ shortages throughout the united states. I argue that everyone should be a priority patient, and they should find a way to solve organ shortages, that way everyone would be a priority patient.
Currently, more than 118,617 men, women, and children are waiting for a transplant. With this high demand for organ transplants, there is a need for supply. According to the OPTN Annual report of 2008, the median national waiting time for a heart transplant is 113 days, 141 days for lungs, 361 days for livers, 1219 days for kidneys, 260 days for pancreas, 159 days for any part of the intestine. With this world of diseases and conditions, we are in desperate need of organs. Organ transplants, followed by blood into a donated organ transfusions, are ways medical procedures are helping better the lives of the patients.
Do you want to be a superhero in someones life then you should consider being an organ donor. Why would I want to be an organ donor you may ask? Well for one after you die your organs could be used to help someone else live. Wouldn't that be cool, you could help people after you have passed on. You can be a organ donor at any age. You can also be a organ donor while you are still alive. The need is constantly growing for organ donors and it is very simple to be an organ donor when you die. Signing up for organ donation will save more lives. Becoming an organ donor is simple and can save the lives of many individuals needing your help. You have the power to save.
The human body; it starts off as a single cell, and grows into a complex machine made of seventy eight distinct organs, two hundred and six bones, and millions of nerves that all communicate with each other to regulate body processes and keep the machine alive and healthy. This seemingly perfect system undergoes countless attacks every day, and manages to recover from most, although occasionally, it can not. Diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis and Coronary Artery Disease, or abnormalities and defects such as biliary atresia, can all disrupt the function of human organs (“Transplant Australia”, n.d ). Thankfully, through radical advancements in modern medicine, organ transplants are a safe and highly viable option to restore the human body’s perfect harmony. No matter the reason for organ failure, once it occurs, the patient’s journey to receiving a new organ begins. Through the matching of organs, the process and the complications that come with it, the ethical issues, and trials of new advancements, the journey is a long one.
Imagine if it were your best friend, your parents, your siblings, or any other close person that needed a live saving organ transplant. It might change your mind on being an organ donor.
Organ donation is the contribution of the biological tissue of the body of a human being, right from a dead or living persona to a receiver who is alive and needs a transplantation. The organs are removed by doctors in a surgical process following a determination, based on the donor’s medical history.
Topic: Should donors or their families be compensated for organ donation? How should people be selected to receive donor organs?
Oz (New York Heart Transplant surgeon) says “they (the families of the brain dead patient) can’t deal with the fear, however irrational, that the true end of their loved one will come when the heart is removed” (Dr. Oz, 7). This premise leads up to the main claim since it states why there aren’t enough donors in the world and why there is a long transplant waiting list too. Also it helps explain that even though the patient is brain dead, you should still treat them as a patient and have some
Organ donation is the process of removing an organ or tissue from organ donor and placing it into the recipient (Cleveland Clinic, 2015). This is important because donation of organs to the person whose organ has failed or has been damaged by disease or injury can get their life back after transplantation. But in todays ' world the number of recipient is more than the number of donor. The organ and tissues which can be transplanted in modern medicine are liver, kidney, pancreas, heart, lungs, intestine, cornea, middle ear, skin, bone marrow, heart valves, and connective tissues (Cleveland Clinic, 2015). There are different policies and reforms for organ transplantation and donation. There are four main types of rules governing the organ transplantation
Nadiminti, H. (2005) Organ Transplantation: A dream of the past, a reality of the present, an ethical Challenge for the future. Retrieved February 12, 2014 from http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2005/09/fred1-0509.html
Death is the end. Once you die there is nothing more you can do to change the world. I am here to tell you that those beginning sentences are false. Once you die there is something you can do to change the world. Organ donation can affect tons of lives just from parts of your body once you are not living anymore creating a lasting impact.
One of the most important and prevalent issues in healthcare discussed nowadays is the concern of the organ donation shortage. As the topic of organ donation shortages continues to be a growing problem, the government and many hospitals are also increasingly trying to find ways to improve the number of organ donations. In the United States alone, at least 6000 patients die each year while on waiting lists for new organs (Petersen & Lippert-Rasmussen, 2011). Although thousands of transplant candidates die from end-stage diseases of vital organs while waiting for a suitable organ, only a fraction of eligible organ donors actually donate. Hence, the stark discrepancy in transplantable organ supply and demand is one of the reasons that exacerbate this organ donation shortage (Parker, Winslade, & Paine, 2002). In the past, many people sought the supply of transplantable organs from cadaver donors. However, when many ethical issues arose about how to determine whether someone is truly dead by either cardiopulmonary or neurological conditions (Tong, 2007), many healthcare professionals and transplant candidates switched their focus on obtaining transplantable organs from living donors instead. As a result, in 2001, the number of living donors surpassed the number of cadaver donors for the first time (Tong, 2007).