Transplants: an update

The focus of this blog has been living with an LVAD and, now that I have a new heart, life beyond having a left ventricular assist device.  

The world of transplantation of solid organs--kidneys, livers, hearts--is undergoing landmark changes.  

Remember that one in three persons on a heart transplant waiting list will die before he or she receives a heart. Others die awaiting other solid organs as well.

A friend got a liver via transplant and is doing well. I've been posting about heart transplants but saw an article in a British newspaper about a live birth from a woman with a transplanted uterus. 

And two mothers in Britain have donated their uteruses to relatives who could not conceive a child.

It happened in Sweden and will be reported in the British medical journal, The Lancet. A British woman is expected to give birth later this year in the same manner with a womb transplant.

Then there was the news from Australia that surgeons successfully transplanted three heart that had stopped beating, essentially a cadaver heart or a dead heart. 

The process involves injecting a specially formulated solution into the "dead" heart and then placing it in a box that supplies it with blood and nutrients until it can be transplanted.  

It took doctors 12 years to develop the method. So far it has been used only in Australia.

As it is now, the basic practice is to remove and place on ice for transport, and to transplant a donated heart within a few hours of the time it is taken from the donor.  

Icing the donated heart can cause damage to the muscle tissue of the organ, making it more difficult for the recipient to recover fully. 

The "heart in a box" technique could minimize damage to the heart muscle and aid in recovery.

Miraculously, I received a heart transplant after 38 months and six days with an LVAD. Apparently my new heart was damaged during the "keep it on ice" process, because it didn't work properly for a week.  

At a year and a half down range from transplant, things are going well.  But as the immortal Satchel Paige has been quoted as saying:  Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you.