I’m calling this “102”, because if you read this blog even SORT of regularly, you know a bit about transplant (probably more than the average bear, for sure!)
With former VP Cheney receiving a new heart over the weekend, people are, invariably, asking all sorts of questions that most journalists aren’t really answering, or, if they are, answering incorrectly. Here are a few.
- Can you buy your way to the top of the list.
- Is it because the VP is famous that he got a transplant?
- He’s sort of old, isn’t he?
- Will his personality change?
1 and 2 can be answered with one word: NO.
Or two: NO. WAY.
Or, three: NO. FREAKING. WAY.
Transplant is probably the most even-handed medical practice there is, and this is partially due to the shortage of organs. Before you are even listed, you are put through rigorous physical and psychological tests. You must be both mentally and physically healthy enough to receive a new organ, be able to follow the medication/examination schedule, and, in general, follow directions.
Once you are listed, you wait. You move up on the list by getting sicker, usually. The VP waited for 20 months, which is a heck of a long time—almost two years—and that’s longer than the average wait for a heart. Some criteria for list placement are: illness, time on waiting list, blood type, body size. Hearts, unlike lungs, cannot be trimmed, so body size is a bigger issue than with lungs (mine, for example, were trimmed because they were slightly too big). So the VP needed someone with his blood type and physical size to be a donor.
He was the best available match for that particular heart. Allocation varies from organ to organ, but the person’s physical condition is primary. People are NOT even in transplant—someone is always a better match, someone always has a medical edge.
As for 3: Yes, he’s in the upper limit for transplant. Some centers, in fact, won’t do them at this age. Centers set their own criteria for acceptance—for example, some lung centers won’t transplant CF people with b.cepacia, a type of bacteria. The fact that he received a transplant at all means that his heart was his only health problem.
4: Um, maybe. Probably not. I noticed that my tastebuds had changed, slightly, after transplant: some things tasted awful to me. But my personality hasn’t really changed.
The salient points are:
- Money doesn’t affect your standing on the list
- Fame does not affect your standing on the list
Of course, be an organ donor, if you’re not already. Really, the only thing that will help the organ shortage is if more people are donors.
Living Adventurously 