That’s my son Turner on the left. He is 17 years old and a high school senior. He will be graduating from high school in about six weeks. Immediately following graduation, Turner will be going to spend three weeks in Lahr, Germany in the home of the kid on the right. His name is Anders Metzger. He stayed in our home for three weeks last fall as part of the German-American Partnership Program. Now it’s almost time for his family to return the favor.
I know that I’ve talked about Turner before, but if you’re a new reader, here it is again. Turner had a heart transplant on April 6, 2000. This week he had a cardiac biopsy to test for any signs of rejection of the transplanted heart.
Donor heart rejection is a problem faced by all heart transplant recipients, if they survive surgery. The human body will reject any foreign substance that penetrates it. For the long term natural survival of our species, this is a good thing. Unfortunately, heart transplant recipients’ bodies often consider the donor heart to be a “foreign substance” and try to eject it from their bodies.
The risk of heart rejection is highest right after transplant surgery. About 1/3 of all heart transplant recipients experience rejection of their new heart during the first year following transplant. Heart transplant recipients take a variety of medications to keep organ rejection in check; including complex (and expensive) drugs to suppress the natural human immune system. Suppressing the immune system decreases the incidence of organ rejection, but it also opens the door to other illnesses getting into the body. There is a delicate equilibrium required for immunosuppression.
Organ rejection is measured by taking cells out of the interior of the heart during the cardiac biopsy. The cells are then examined for defects. There is a measurement scale of organ rejection. 0 is the best. Then there is 1A,1B, 2 Stable, 2 Unstable, 3 Stable, 3 Unstable, 3B Stable, 3B Unstable, and finally on the “bad” end of the scale, 4.
Turner’s rejection test this week yielded a 0 rejection finding. That’s great news for Turner, and for all that love him.
