Heart Failure Essay

2.1) Heart transplants are recommended to patients when severe heart failure is present or when one or both ventricles are not functioning like how they should be. In many forms of congenital heart disease, ventricular failure may also occur. It is more common in congenital defects with a single ventricle or when irreversible heart failure occurs from long-standing valve obstruction or even leakage. Patients who had the Fontan procedure as a child (which includes helping complex congenital heart defects) may need a heart transplant. This is because the blood flow through the venous system is slow and the veins are congested. This leads to protein loss, fluid accumulation and swelling.
2.2) The cost of a heart transplant includes preliminary
testing, the surgery itself as well as post-operative recovery costs. These costs vary across countries and are dependent on the organ type as well as the hospital. But according to http://www.transplantliving.org/before-the-transplant/financing-a-transplant/the-costs/, the Estimated U.S. Average 2011 Total Billed Charges Per heart transplant is $1,148,400.
2.3) A suitable donor consists of someone over the age of 18, someone who does not smoke as it causes heart and vascular disease, someone who has not had health problems as these may be passed onto the patient through the organ, donors must not be involved with drug use as potential donors who use chronic pain medication experience a higher incidence of post-operative pain after donation of a donor and a suitable donor consists of a donor whose blood and tissue type are checked to ensure that they are compatible to that of the patient. Those with rare tissue types may only be able to accept an organ from someone of the same ethnic origin as people from the same ethnic group are more likely to be a close match. The success of the outcome is dependent on how great the match between the patient and donor is.
2.4) The patient’s life will change after a heart transplant as they are forced to spend a large amount of time in hospital as recovery includes 1 to 2 weeks in the hospital alongside 3 months of being monitored by the transplant team at the Heart Transplant Centre.
Patients will have to take part in cardiac rehab with counselling, education, and exercise training which will take up most of their days. Patients will need medicine called immunosuppressants to prevent their immune system from attacking the heart as it is seen as a foreign object, this medication will make patients easily prone to disease and infection so they will have to be very cautious of their surroundings and interaction with others in their environment, patients will have to manage their large variety of medicine as well as take them accordingly and ensuring they run out as it may be fatal and life after a heart transplant may be filled with fear, anxiety, depression and stress as patients were very close to death and their new lifestyle is very restricted.
2.5) No, the ratio of organ donors to the amount of potential organ recipients is not sufficient. Therefore due to numbers, many recipients are unable to receive a transplant and this is why not everyone who needs a transplant is given one. This is why possible recipients are categorised into low, medium and high risk of death without the heart transplant. An established cardiac transplant centre then makes a final decision regarding listing a patient to receive a
transplant.