Liver Transplant Awareness Info!

Cindy and Carole attended a class in Mayo, which will provide insight about Liver Transplants:

"While at Mayo, they sent us to an organ transplant class, specifically re: the liver. We learned there is no age limit in a transplant candidate. A 90 yo man can get one. As long as the criteria are met. Criteria includes ensuring everything else is healthy to withstand such a major surgery. For a transplant, it is HEIGHT that determines suitability. If a person is 5'4" & the height of the available organ donor is also the same, that organ is considered. If a person is 6', the donor would also have to be 6', & so on. CHILDREN are more priority than anyone else. Also the severity of the illness is also top priority. The person must have less than 2 years to surivive. The wait-time for an organ is about 1 year. The liver weighs about 3 lbs & is the size of a football.

Mayo has a team of doctors, clergy, social workers, psychologists, etc., who meet every Weds for a selection conference where they decide on a weekly basis who is & not suitable for an organ transplant based on their criteria. It is not easy to get a transplant. Their goal is that the patient will be successfully thrive post-transplant. Mayo's 1st liver transplant was in 1985.

For more extremely interesting data, go to UNOS on the web that provdes data, UNOS sites for transplants [there are only 11 centers in the U.S.] as well as their donor awareness directives.

Mayo requires 8-10 hours once called for an organ to get from home to their site for transplantation.'"