Organ transplantation gives a new chance to live to many people of different age. For some individuals, this medical procedure can be the only opportunity to address some severe health condition. Certainly, this would not be possible without an amazing progress in technology which people have made.
Still, money transplantation seems to be rather mysterious to many people. The procedure is surrounded by bizarre anecdotes and unbelievable stories which are actually true. Needless to say, while the governments of the majority of countries are doing their best to keep the procedure under control so that it is conducted exclusively in a legal way without harming anyone, organ trade is also a rather lucrative business for some people. Certainly, such an uncertain situation has created various myths about organ transplantation which should be debunked.
An organ can be taken from anyone and transplanted to anyone
We are not going to explain some specific regulations existing for particular countries. For instance, in some countries taking organs from living people is prohibited if only this person is not a close relative of a recipient, while other countries do not have such regulations. At the same time, any of these regulations do not count for black market which is just selling organs illegally.
What is important right now is the fact that no matter whether the transplantation is carried out in a legal way or not, taking an organ from just any person and transplanting to another person is a very bad idea. As you can imagine, getting an organ from another body can cause serious health problems in the body of a recipient especially if the donor was ill with some particular diseases. Of course, it does not mean that some super underground group of criminals transplanting organs would necessarily care about the way a person with a new organ would feel after transplantation, however, in the majority of cases this fact is taken into consideration.
Obviously, organs coming from people ill with particular infections such as HIV, viral encephalitis, hepatitis B and C can put the recipient under a serious threat. there are also other health conditions which should stop a surgeon from transplantation. For example, some types of malignant brain tumours are in the group of such diseases.
Almost all of the organs can be transplanted
It is possible to transplant many different organs indeed, however, everything depends on the form of transplantation.
The most widespread form of transplantation is based on taking organs from a deceased person. In such a case there is a large variety of organs which can be transplanted. Certainly, when a person is already dead, it is possible to take several organs at a time. In fact, up to six organs can be taken from a late person.
When it comes to a living person, everything depends on the regulations of the country and of course, on the fact whether the transplantation is legal or not in the first place. If the surgery is absolutely legal, it is usually allowed to take only three types of biomaterial from such a person. and only one of these types is a whole organ. This organ is a kidney. The other two are a piece of a small intestine as well as a piece of a liver.
By the way, it is crucial to understand that blood and its components as well as entire organs related to the reproductive system of a person are not regarded organs for transplantation by the regulations of many countries.
People after transplantation have a very short time to live
One of the popular myths about organ transplantation is that the health of organ recipients become thus impaired that they have a very short life afterwards. At the same time, there is another widespread belief about organ transplantation which says that, on the contrary, people are just getting their new organs and that is it.
Actually, none of these myths is true, however, there is a bit of truth in the first one.
It is wrong to say a person will necessarily have a rather short life after transplantation, however, it can happen if a person does not take special medications known as suppressors of an immune system. These medications are weakening the natural guard of a human body which is its immune system. This is absolutely necessary since the body will do its best to get rid of the intruder which is in this case a transplanted organ. Such a medical procedure as organ transplantation can cause a severe immune response and it is very important to avoid it.
Unfortunately, the suppressors of immune system will also make a body more vulnerable to various infections. For that reason, the recipients of organs have to be very careful and take good care of their health in order not to fall ill.
If these things are done, a person can live a long life. Still, it does not mean one can just have a surgery and move on as if nothing such has ever happened.