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The Importance Of Organ Transplants

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The surgical removal of an organ or tissue from one person and placing it into another person. That is the definition of organ transplantation, one of the most important surgical procedures to date. It is necessary for human life to be sustained in today’s world. The need for organs continues to grow, however, the supply does not grow with it. Whether it be because there are more irritants to cause organ failure, or a lack of donors, it’s hard to tell which may be impacting more. Every day in the United States, around 20 people die waiting for organ transplant. Every 10 minutes, another person is added to the waiting list. There are currently 114,959 people actively awaiting a transplant, but by the time this paper is finished, there will …show more content…

Brain death is declared when a severe head trauma takes place that permanently cuts off blood flow to the brain. This condition is unrepairable. At this point, the harvest teams only have a few hours to get consent from the family of the deceased and harvest the organs. They can only stay healthy for a few hours because machines are doing all the work, not the body and the brain. Brain death tends to be a touchy subject, and people like to argue that the patient is not actually brain dead, but the doctors are very sure to do every test correctly to be positive the potential donor is brain dead. After the donor is declared brain dead, the organs are input into an online database where a recipient is found. First, the top priorities on the waiting list are compared with the donor’s genes to see if the organs are a match. The first person to match with the organ they need will get it. They recipient’s hospital will send a team to harvest the organ and bring it to the hospital while the recipient is prepared for surgery. This is usually the protocol for a deceased donor, however, live donors usually donate to a person they …show more content…

This is mostly because of the recipient’s body rejecting it. The patient takes anti-rejection medication, but sometimes that is not enough. There are two types of rejection: acute and chronic. Acute rejection is fairly common, and will usually occur during the first year following the transplant. That can easily be cured by upping the dose of immunosuppressants the patient was taking. However, acute rejection can lead to chronic rejection, which can result in a lost organ. Signs of rejection include: pain at the site of the transplant, crankiness, flu-like symptoms, fever, weight changes, swelling, change in heart rate, and urinating less

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An organ transplant is an operation that places a healthy organ from one person into another. The organ can come from someone who has died (a deceased donor) and has signed their state’s donor registry or told their family of their wishes to become a donor. Up to 25 different organs can be donated for transplantation. Transplantable organs include the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, and small intestines. According to Donate Life America's 2011 statistics, there were 8,127 deceased organ donors and 6,017 living organ donors in the United States, adding up to 28,535 organ transplants overall.

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According to MacKay’s research, in the year 2000, “2,583 Americans died while waiting for a kidney transplant” (120) and according to Matas, “over 6% of waiting candidates die annually” (2007). "With over 60,000 people in line in the United States alone, the average wait for a cadaverous kidney is ten long years" (120). As the reader can see, MacKay is very credible with stating factual statistics in regards to the urgent need of kidney donations and she has Matas to back her up with similar statistics. These statistics show the reader that MacKay’s argument is a strong

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According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word “watershed” can be defined as “a time when an important change happens” (“Watershed”). The year 1950 can be considered a “watershed,” or turning point, in U.S. history. Many significant events happened during this year that changed the United States as a nation and had a profound impact on its future. Some of these events include the start of the Korean War, the beginning of “McCarthyism,” the beginning of the development of the hydrogen bomb, the development of the first major credit card company, and the first organ transplant.

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Patients on the waiting list are in end-stage organ failure and have been evaluated by a transplant physician at hospitals in the U.S. where organ transplants are performed. Policies that dictate organ allocation are created and revised through a consensus-building process that involves UNOS committees and a board of directors, all composed of transplant physicians, government officials, specialists in immunology and experts in organ donation, as well as donor families, transplant recipients and members of the general public. Specifics of waiting list rules vary by organ.² The time patients spend on the heart transplant waiting list can last anywhere from days to months, and in some cases years, depending on listing status. The availability of a donor with matching blood type and body size also affects the wait time.

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Refusal of Organ Donation After Death Organ donation definition: it takes healthy organs and tissues from one person(the donor) for transplantation into another(the recipient). An organ transplant may save a person's life, or significantly improve their health and quality of life. Main Social Problem: Refusal of many people to donate due to many factors and obstacles. A chronic shortage of organs for transplantation has and continues to be one of the most controversial pressing health issues in many developed countries.

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In “How to Know If You’re Dead,” author Mary Roach explores the definition of brain death and how declaring death when the heart is beating, but there is no brain activity, has been extremely controversial. The essay explains how modern medicine has created the problem of classifying death by developing technology to maintain life on a respirator despite there being no brain activity. Roach explains that, although there is a general public understanding of brain death, the fact that the heart may still be beating causes many to feel that the patient is still alive. In addition to providing background information and rationale about organ harvesting, the essay’s narration also allows me to visualize the process and to understand the controversy surrounding it.

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Organ transplants in the present day are very expensive even if you have health insurance with high coverage. Another problem is that some organs are so high in demand that there is a waiting list, on which patients can remain for months or years. Increasing the number of donated organs would increase the number of operations which in effect would bring down the expenses and eliminate organ waiting

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More than 120,000 people died last year while waiting for a donor, donation of organs costs nothing (“Why be an Organ Donor”). Becoming an organ donor opens up various options such as organ donation or body donation. Body donation is where the bodies will be given to universities or schools around America, where the students of medicine department will do research on the body to figure out why the organ failed (“Body Donor Program”). The body will not be presented to the public and after it is researched it will be cremated and returned to the family as ash 's (“Body Donor Program”). With that being said some of the organs will be perfect to donate, but some may not meet all the requirements for donation , such as correct blood types, free of sexually transmitted diseases, diabetes, and mental health issues ( "Saving Lives and Giving Hope by Reducing the Organ Waiting

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Organ donation is currently the only successful way of saving the lives of patients with organ failure and other diseases that require a new organ altogether. According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services there is currently 122,566 patients both actively and passively on the transplant list. This number will continue to increase, in fact, every ten minutes another person is added to the list. Unfortunately, twenty-two of these people die while waiting for an organ on a daily basis. Each day, about eighty Americans receive a lifesaving organ transplant.

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There are nearly 100,000 people waiting patiently on organ transplant waiting lists, but sadly, on an average day, less than 80 people receive donor organs and approximately 19 die waiting for transplants. Even with

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This means 90 people will be added to the waiting list during a day. How many people die in the USA per day then? Just in the USA it dies over 6000 people per day, which means that if every person in the USA donated their organs, we wouldn’t have a waiting list to organ transplantation in 14 days. As an organ donor you have the possibility to choose to donate the organs or tissues as you specify or any needed organs.

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