Product Description

Over 64,000 people in the US are living in limbo, awaiting an organ transplant. The good news about organ transplants is that they are becoming fairly routine surgical procedures. The even better news is that they do work miracles. People who have been in ill health for years often describe a feeling of being reborn after a transplant. However, those families who have been told that a loved one needs a transplant to live are thrust into a strange land. Patients and families worry that no organ will be available to them. They may fear the surgery or what living with someone else's organ will feel like. They may have only a foggy idea of what staying with an immunosuppressive therapy regime after the operation will entail. Organ Transplants: Making the Most of Your Gift of Life describes: Deciding whether to have a transplant and choosing a transplant team The importance of the screening interview What factors go into determining a match, and what to do while waiting Detailed information on heart and lung, liver, kidney and pancreas, and other transplants Anti-rejection drugs and living with a transplant Emotional responses and support Specific situations such as living donors, transplants in children, meeting the donor family, etc. Robert Finn, medical and scientific journalist and author, has interviewed dozens of patients, family members, medical caregivers, and transplant activists to present your family with the latest facts about transplantation--as well as the stories behind those facts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2922875 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 326 pages

From the Publisher
Over 64,000 people in the US are awaiting an organ transplant. Although transplant surgeries are now fairly routine and can give their recipients the gift of new life, the road to getting a transplant can be long and harrowing. Living with immunosuppressive drugs and strong emotional responses can also be more challenging than families imagine. Medical journalist Robert Finn answers the concerns of these families, with the latest facts about transplantation--as well as the stories behind them.

About the Author
Robert Finn graduated from the University of Chicago with an A.B. in biological sciences and intended to pursue a career as a research neuroscientist. After several years in graduate school, in the Department of Psychobiology at the University of California, Irvine, he realized that he preferred writing about science to actually doing it. Robert left with an M.S. degree to pursue a career as a science writer. For a number of years, he worked full-time at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, doing science writing for Caltech's research magazine and then for the news media, explaining scientific advances. Since 1992, Robert has been a full-time freelance writer. He has written hundreds of articles for dozens of publications, including Discover, Men's Fitness, the Los Angeles Times, and The Scientist, where he is a contributing editor. Although he has written about practically all areas of science, he specializes in biomedicine and in science policy. He estimates that he has interviewed close to 1,000 scientists, physicians, and other experts during his career. Robert has been fascinated with the drug development process and clinical trials since college. Several years ago he worked for a contract research organization, writing chapters for highly technical books intended for scientists interested in clinical trials. Cancer Clinical Trials is Robert's first book. He is now working on a book on organ transplants.

Excerpted from Organ Transplants: Making the Most of Your Gift of Life by Robert Finn. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Preface

This book is intended for anyone who may need an organ or tissue transplant, or anyone helping such a person make medical decisions. Sometimes the person who is ill is too wrapped up in pain, worry, and fear to be able to focus clearly on his or her medical options. Sometimes the illness is so severe that it renders the patient unable to make critical medical decisions. It falls then to a family member or trusted friend, working in cooperation with medical professionals, to identify the decisions to be made and to present them clearly to the patient (when possible) or to actually make those decisions (when necessary and with the patient's assent).

The world of transplantation may seem strange and foreign to someone entering it for the first time. People who live in that world seem to speak a language all their own, and they have some awfully strange customs and concerns as well. This book will serve as a guide book to that world. You'll learn what to expect during your journey through transplantation, and you'll learn what to do if you encounter problems.

While this book contains a great deal of medical information, it is meant merely to supplement and not to substitute for advice from medical professionals. Medical science evolves and advances constantly, and some medical details go out of date rapidly. In addition, different organ transplant programs have different ways of doing things. On top of that, I am a journalist and not a physician. Although the publishers and I have diligently endeavored to ensure that all material was accurate at the time it was published, errors may remain, and you should consult medical professionals before adopting procedures or treatments discussed in this book. Use this book as a framework on which to build your knowledge about organ transplantation, and add to that framework with up-to-date information from other sources, including your own research and members of your transplant team.

About the people in this book
In researching this book, I interviewed dozens of people intimately involved in the world of transplantation, including donors, recipients, physicians, nurses, social workers, and other transplant professionals. Their words read like dispatches from the foot soldiers of a medical revolution.

You will find much of what they say to be fascinating and relevant, but you'll also find differing experiences and differing opinions. Human beings are complex biological organisms, but more than that, we all have a deeply spiritual dimension as well. People who receive transplants have different backgrounds, different personalities, and different medical conditions. Medical professionals often disagree on diagnosis and treatment. For those reasons, every person's experience with transplant is unique, and I urge you to keep that in mind as you read their personal accounts. As the saying goes, "Your mileage may vary."
There are no fictional or composite characters in this book. Although the people quoted here were offered anonymity through the use of pseudonyms, every one of them chose to use his or her real name.

Organization of this book
This book is organized so that you may either read it straight through or go directly to the chapter that contains subjects of interest. If you are not already familiar with the world of transplantation, however, it's probably a good idea to start off by reading Chapters 1, 2, and 3.

Chapter 1, Considering a Transplant, describes how to make decisions about transplant and presents some critical data. The chapter also contains sections on what many religions think about organ transplant and donation, and demolishes a number of pernicious myths.

Chapter 2, The System, describes how individual hospitals, local and regional organ procurement organizations, and the United Network for Organ Sharing (the most important national transplant organization in the US) work together. Here you'll also find general information on how transplant teams evaluate potential candidates for transplant.
Chapter 3, The Wait, describes how donor organs are matched with recipients, how the immune system can cause rejection, and how people awaiting transplant can approach this most difficult time.

Chapter 4, Heart and Lung Transplants, discusses what sort of people are considered for heart, lung, or heart-lung transplants, and it describes what happens before, during, and after surgery.

Chapter 5, Liver Transplants, discusses what sort of people are considered for liver transplants, and it describes what happens before, during, and after surgery.

Chapter 6, Kidney and Pancreas Transplants, discusses what sort of people are considered for kidney, pancreas, or kidney-pancreas transplants, and it describes what happens before, during, and after surgery.

Chapter 7, Other Transplants, discusses transplants of the bone marrow, corneas, intestines, limbs, skin, and other organs and tissues.

Chapter 8, Anti-Rejection Drugs, discusses what rejection is and how it is controlled and treated. It goes into a bit of detail on each of the standard immunosuppressive drugs, describing what they do and what side effects they may have.
Chapter 9, Living with a Transplant, discusses how to manage your health after transplant. There's information on keeping your medications straight, making sure you get proper treatment in an emergency room, how to keep from getting infections, and how to live life with gusto as a transplant recipient. There's also some information on cancer, since people taking immunosuppressive medication are at higher risk for some forms of this disease.

Chapter 10, Emotional Responses, discusses the range of emotions that transplant recipients and their families experience while riding the transplant roller coaster, and how to deal with them.

Chapter 11, Family and Support, discusses how the transplant experience affects couples, children, and whole families, and provides pointers to some of the many avenues for emotional support.

Chapter 12, Transplants in Children, discusses some of the special considerations for pediatric transplant recipients.
Chapter 13, Living Donors, discusses the advantages and disadvantages for both donors and recipients of living-donor organ transplants.