A transplant is a kind of replacement of ill organs with new well-functional ones. However, the idea of exchanging ill organs or other parts of human body from a donor to another person seems to be very old. The first organ which was successfully transplanted was a kidney transplanted in the 1950's. The first successful transplant of human heart was carried out in 1976 in Kapstadt.
The most important thing in successful transplant of human organs is finding in the right time the right person who will be a donor. Moreover, the donor organs have to match the ill patient's tissues and blood. Another problem may be the rejection of patient on the newly transplanted organ, because often human body's immune system recognizes the transplant organs as the foreign body and may try to destroy it. So just before an operation the patient is given cyclosporine. It is a kind of drug used in the whole world which prevents the rejection of a new organ. The solution to avoid such a rejection is the family-oriented transplant. However, this kind of transplants is underestimated in our country. Thanks to some television program or popular Polish soap operas such as "Klan" this kind of transplants is becoming more and more popular. The closer is the donor, who decides to give you an organ, the lower possibility of rejection is. It means that a donor may be a sibling, a child or a parent. Their bodies are made of the similar tissues, which incredibly increases the possibility of the successful transplant. According to experts there is a great possibility of successful transplant, when the organ is donated by the loving long-time partner of the patient. But in case of transplants of heart, lungs or cornea, the donor who is pronounced to be brain-dead is needed. These organs may be given only by dead people. The transplant is possible when the whole committee consisted of such doctors as a neurologist, an anaesthesiologist and a coroner has to unanimously decide that the brain stem of a possible donor stopped all its functions. The process of removing the vital organs is very complicated. In hospital conditions human organs may retain all their functions from a few hours even to 12 or 13 hours. If there is the necessity of transporting of that organ, it is rinsed properly, then packed in a sterile bag made of plastic full of saline solution and kept in a special cooler. So the race is against the clock. A heart should be transplanted into a patient's body within the time of four hours, a liver must be transplanted from the donor's body to the patient right away, whereas the kidneys may be stored up for couple days.
Unfortunately, the transplants in Poland are very rare, because the list of patients who need the transplant is very long. What is worse, a lot of people die each year as a result of kidney failure. I think they would survive if the waiting for a donor.
The idea of donating our organs after our death
According to the law, the doctor needn't have to ask for the permission of other family members to transplant the organs of death person. The law also states that if the person didn't object to donating her/his own organs when she/he was alive so her/his organs may be used to transplant to other people in case of the donor's death. In England everyone who wants to donate her/ his organs after the death carries the Donor Card, which states that the organs may be removed in case of sudden death.
A single human being may save even four other ill people: a heart taker, two kidneys takers and a liver taker. Often the victims of car accidents are the valuable donors of organs useful for transplants. However, the demand for every human organ is huge. If only the greater number of people decide to give their organs to the people in need, the more patients would be probably saved.
