Heart transplants work.  However, there are not nearly enough donors of hearts or other organs.  You can help save lives by being an organ donor.

Many of us can still remember when heart transplants sounded like something from science-fiction and the first actual transplants seemed like true medical miracles.  They are still miracles and they are not exactly "everyday" operations.  But in fact, in hospitals across the country heart transplants are done every day and they are normally quite successful.  The most serious problem facing people who need the operation is not the procedure itself, but the difficulty in finding a heart to transplant.

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is the organization that manages the fair allocation of the limited number of donor hearts (and other organs).  It maintains a centralized computer network that links all organ procurement organizations and transplant centers. UNOS member organizations, transplant candidates, recipients and donor family members work together to develop policies that give every transplant candidate an opportunity to receive the organ they need.

When the decision is made for a patient to be a candidate for a heart transplant, the person's name is entered into both the national and regional UNOS data banks. Patients are grouped into categories according to the severity of their heart condition.  Doctors submit ongoing reports to UNOS and alert them to any change in a person's condition, which can change their position on the priority list.

Aside from the patient's condition, other criteria used to choose a recipient include blood type, size match between patient and donor, how long the patient has been waiting, and the patient's location (because a donor heart cannot safely be outside of the body for more than four hours).

Learn how to get on the national heart transplant waiting list

500,000 people will die this year with heart failure.  In the U.S. alone, there are more than 4,000 people currently on the waiting list for a heart for intractable heart failure. About one third of them - more than 1,300 people - will die waiting.