Organ Care Systems for Heart offers a helping-hand for Heart Patients during Coronavirus Pandemic

Nearly six million people all over the globe are estimated to experience final-stage failure of an organ. In 2018, organ care systems helped about 1, 50,000 patients worldwide to transplant their affected organ with a healthy liver, heart, kidney, lung, or other solid organs—a number far less than the demand.

Many countries experience a similar shortage of healthy organs and hence, have higher death rates due to the inability to cope up with the demand for organ transplants. With the advent of life-threatening coronavirus disease, the chances of organ transplant procedures have even more declined. However, advance organ care systems are simplifying the job of organ transplantation, thus saving lives of people worldwide.

Organ Transplantations Getting Even More Troublesome

Currently, countries all over the globe are striving to adjust to new realities brought by COVID-19 pandemic. Several healthcare centers, organ care institutions, and final-stage organ failure patients are tensed about the latent impact of COVID-19 on organ donations and transplantation procedures. The biggest concern of all is that transplant receivers may have greater chances of getting infected if the donor is infected with this deadly disease. Also, hospitals will not have enough resources both healthcare staff and equipment to look after transplant recipients, who usually require extensive care and observation.

A temporary but robust association between the upsurge in COVID-19 patients and a prominent increase in the number of heart patients have been observed since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of COVID-19 on heart is resulting in an increase in the number of heart attacks all over the world, thus increasing the demand for organ system for heart. As COVID-19 is spreading hastily all over Europe, North America, South America, and other continents, healthcare professionals and medical institution heads are facing difficulties in making decisions about the best ways to arrange medical resources. The condition of thousands of patients waiting for organ transplantation is extremely demoralizing. Transplant specialists have to acclimate with these swiftly altering conditions, offer hope to their patients, and stay self-confident to bolster the benefits of transplant systems when the COVID-19 pandemic situation gets under control.

With the irresistible burden on healthcare facilities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, a positive impact on the global organ care system for heart market  is predicted by Research Dive analysts. Researchers have predicted that in-depth cartographic mapping of trends in organ donation and transplant procedures will be seen once the impacts of COVID-19 starts fading out. Some organ transplant organizations and healthcare providers will undeniably pull through the incurred losses as soon as possible by adopting best practices and effective communication with hospitals. Careful planning will help healthcare providers and transplant institutions to combat this situation and help heart patients to obtain healthy hearts.

Lockdown Declines Traffic Accident Cases

As per the United Network for Organ Sharing, the demises due to vehicle crashes and deadly injuries are the major source of organs for transplantation, resulting in nearly 33% of donations. However, with the implementation of lockdown, which is meant to avert the spread of COVID-19, the number of accidents has drastically deteriorated. From March 2020, the number of organ donors who died in road accidents and due to other injuries have declined as compared to the last year. Doctors have also seen a drop in the number of emergency cases overall, not just for accidents, and this might also affect the availability of donor organs.

The Bottom Line

During this lockdown period, people worldwide are staying in homes, safe and sound. However, patients are losing their lives due to a stroke or heart attack at home instead of a hospital, and hence their organs cannot be used for transplant because of loss of blood supply to the organ that can be suitable for transplantation. For organs to be suitable for transplant, a person must expire or be declared brain-dead while on a ventilator, so that the blood keeps pumping to the lungs, heart, liver, and kidneys. Organ care systems are playing a vital role in such situations by preserving the organ until it reaches to the destined recipient.

About the Author(s)

Princy A. J

Princy holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the prestigious Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. University at Chennai, India. After a successful academic record, she pursued her passion for writing. A thorough professional and enthusiastic writer, she enjoys writing on various categories and advancements in the global industries. She plays an instrumental role in writing about current updates, news, blogs, and trends.