|
| Alexander, smiling at the Annual Heart Transplant Patient Picnic. |
Living with a transplant is a life-long process. Medications must be given to the patient that have the ability to trick the patient's immune system into thinking that the heart belongs to that patient's body, so that the immune system will not attack the transplanted organ.
Other medications must be given to the patient in order to prevent side effects, such as high blood pressure, that can occur from taking the anti-rejection medications. It is essential that the patient frequently visits and contacts the transplant team. This is to ensure that a patient is watched and observed closely, on a daily basis, for any signs of transplant organ rejection, as this type of observation is critical for the long-term health of a transplant patient.
Eventually, when a child becomes old enough to independently care for himself or herself, he or she will need to learn about the proper usage of anti-rejection medications, what they do and how to continuously prevent and look for any signs of transplant organ rejection.
The length of time a child can live after a heart transplant is uncertain, as every child and every transplant is separate and different. As physicians and scientists continue to learn more about how the body deals with transplanted organs and search for ways to improve the success of transplantation, results will continue to improve.
|
