10 Facts and myths About Liver Donation..

Liver is a large organ situated in our body on the right side of the belly. Its function is to filter the blood which it receives from the digestive tract and then pass it to the rest parts of the body. It also helps in clotting of blood and creating proteins that are essential for digestion. In the post we will clear our doubts related to Liver Donation.

How is liver Damaged ?

Liver is damaged by use of alcohol, smoking, chewing of tobacco and other such bad habits regularly. For women liver can be damaged mostly due to working on heat furnaces where there is plenty of smoke of coals, wood. Places where there are plastic factories affects the liver to a larger extent, as plastic contains the most poisonous gases that can harm it badly.

Symptoms of Liver Damage –

A healthy Liver may be damaged if you suffered from jaundice, nausea,weakness and weight loss or vomiting from a long time.Some of the Symptoms are as under –

• Tiredness – You feel dizzy all day long.
• Low Platelets – platelets counts begin to reduce in your body, reducing immunity.
• Nhospit- You feel like puking all the time.
• Edema – There is swelling in parts of your body.
• Jaundice – If you get jaundice again and again.
• Bruising – Due to lower platelets count, the clotting of blood reduces.
• Swollen Spleen – The Spleen below liver is swollen
• Stomach pains – you get frequent stomach aches.
• Diarrhea – You suffer from diarrhea.
• Loss of Appetite – You don’t feel hungry .

These all are the symptoms that causes liver Disease like Hepatitis A, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, Cirrhosis of the liver, Alcoholic hepatitis, Non alcoholic fatty liver diseases,  hemochromatosis and so on, which leads to liver failure to work indefinitely and then the liver needs to be replaced.

Liver Transplantation – It means replacement  of a diseased liver with another healthy liver. This can be done by orthopedic transplantation in which old liver is replaced with a complete new and healthy liver  or as much as required. The surgical process usually takes 4 to 18 hours depending on the basis of disease, and body type.

Liver Donation – Myths and facts of liver transplants are –

1. Will I have to pay to donate an organ ?

No you have to not pay any expenses occurred on the donation process, The expenses are limited to the family of the decreased to the extent the person is alive.

2. Getting a liver from a living person is better than getting one from decreased one ?

No, This is not true. Many times a person sees that he won’t be able to survive for long and then he prefer to donate his organs before they gets infected so that this body parts could be of some use to anyone, but it is not true at all that always a person who is alive will donate a liver, it happens only in rare cases. While collecting the liver of a person who is decreased it is taken in some specified time and it is pre – examined by doctors before transplanting .

3 Is transplant a cure ?

Transplantation is like taking a risk, The new liver may or may not suit you. first liver was transplanted at Canada in 1963, but first successfully transplanted liver was done by Canada in 1970, so there are chances that sometimes thew liver may not suit the person.

4. Rich people get a donation before poor people ? 

This is just a myth that rich people get a donation before poor people, but the fact is that when the donation request is registered, it is judged on the basis of Diseases, its urgency to get donated and several other important aspects .

5. The cases in which a liver transplant leads to failure, is it that doctors knew this before and they transferred it for money ?

A doctor suggests for liver transplant only when he thinks there is chances of saving your life by taking a big risk.

6. My religion doesn’t permit me to be a donor.

Saving someone’s life, no religion can be greater than that and that are holy books which says that  our main goal of life should be to serve others.

7. Is it that I won’t get same disease again ?

Many times the liver which you received in transplantation does not go with your body type and it needs to be replaced immediately in next 24 hours and in such cases the new liver which you gets is generally infected with a virus called hepatitis C.

8.Will my family have to go through lot of formalities if my liver is donated ? 

No neither your family nor you will be responsible to pay any charges to donate a liver and there aren’t any such fast and hard rules to register for Liver Donation.

9. Is it that I will get a healthy liver ?

Yes, during transplantation you always get a healthy liver, No diseased liver is transplanted. 

10. Will I be not operated If I have applied for my  Liver Donation ?

First task of a doctor is to save your life than to go think of saving others life by causing harm to you, so be tension free and Go for liver donation.

 In case of accidents many people create a rumor that if the accident person is a donor, Doctors don’t save them, but it is 100% wrong.  Doctors are here to first save your health, they won’t get anything by killing one person and saving the life of other. 

For more information relating to liver transplant check the following – 

1. Liver Transplants by Manipal Hospital

2.Transplants By Manipal Hospital  

3. Manipal Hospital

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