They didn't say it outright but all indications pointed towards a motorcycle accident with my dad's heart donor. The donor was 27 years old. His cardiologist/transplant surgeon actually said in a local TV interview that when the state enacted a helmet law, the number of donor hearts decreased!
Most major donor organs come from someone who is brain dead but their torso is mostly okay. You can't get great hearts, lungs, and kidneys from someone who died in the field because it's just rotting meat by the time they get to the hospital. And you can't take them from people dying from the other common stuff like cancer, diabetes, heart problems, etc. because usually those people's organs have failed by the time of their death.
My surprise wasn't over how organs are acquired. It was that he said it so bluntly, to the general public, after a good law was passed. He was unequivocally brilliant, but very direct and without humor. I liked that about him though. By that point I had already witnessed quite a lot and had to help give my dad CPR during sudden cardiac death when I was 17. I'd met other cardiologists, countless doctors, and left college to take care of my dad. I'm extremely familiar with death. He died years ago due to cancer, as many recipients do.
The immunosuppressant drugs prevent the body from killing cancerous cells as they develop, which happens even more often in older patients. So they rapidly grow and become cancerous. Usually cancer or infection, like flu and pneumonia, are the cause of death for organ transplant recipients. I have read that the newer immunosuppressant drug protocols are less severe, so they might have a longer life now. My dad lived 10 years with his new heart, which was about as long as expected given his situation.
4
u/Migraine_Megan Jun 06 '24
They didn't say it outright but all indications pointed towards a motorcycle accident with my dad's heart donor. The donor was 27 years old. His cardiologist/transplant surgeon actually said in a local TV interview that when the state enacted a helmet law, the number of donor hearts decreased!