A few years ago, a friend received a liver transplant, which saved his life. They honestly do not know what caused his original liver to fail: he was never much of a drinker, didn't do drugs, lived a fairly clean life but his liver was starting to fail for several years before he was transplanted. I don't remember how many years he was on the list before he got his liver. It's one of those games: your numbers improve, you move down the list. Your numbers go down, you move up the list but risk dying before you get a match. During this period of time, he made a big career change, giving up a post he really loved to be near a good transplant center, which also meant uprooting his kids who were just finishing high school, etc. And then, he ended up moving back to our home state to help his parents who were facing serious health issues and had to start over again with a new transplant team. He risked his life to help his parents because that's what he thought was the right thing to do. It worked out well for him as he was put on the list with a new team and so began his wait again.
During his surgery, they discovered an issue that, had they known prior to the surgery, would have precluded him from receiving his new liver. Fortunately, his team included someone whose specialty was resolving that sort of vascular issue and the transplant was successful. However, he battled some serious infection issues afterwards, despite being extremely vigilant about his meds and his wound care and ended up re-hospitalized. He almost died 5 months after the transplant.
Being a transplant recipient is no walk in the park. My friend is fine now and is in good health, all things considered. He will remain on meds all his life and has to maintain a clean, healthy lifestyle in order for his new liver to keep functioning. He's doing well, thankfully. Without the surgery when he had it, he would have died within a very short period of time. He was lucky and he knows it and is grateful every single day.
Transplant patients who are not going to be compliant with the post op protocols FOR LIFE are not going to receive transplants because it's a waste of everyone's time and money plus the valuable organ that will be wasted on someone not willing to follow medical protocols and medication regimes post op.
I really do not understand why so many people think the rules do not apply to them. By rules, I mean the rules of science, nature, medicine, whatever you'd like to call it. Unfortunately, no matter what your mommy told you, you're just not that special and rules apply to you.
