The world of transplantation may seem strange and foreign to someone entering it for the first time. People who live in that world seem to speak a language all their own, and they have some awfully strange customs and concerns as well. This book will serve as a guide book to that world. You'll learn what to expect during your journey through transplantation, and you'll learn what to do if you encounter problems. While this book contains a great deal of medical information, it is meant merely to supplement and not to substitute for advice from medical professionals.
Medical science evolves and advances constantly, and some medical details go out of date rapidly.
In addition, different organ transplant programs have different ways of doing things. On top of that, I am a journalist and not a physician. Although the publishers and I have diligently endeavored to ensure that all material was accurate at the time it was published, errors may remain, and you should consult medical professionals before adopting procedures or treatments discussed in this book. In researching this book, I interviewed dozens of people intimately involved in the world of transplantation, including donors, recipients, physicians, nurses, social workers, and other transplant professionals. Their words read like dispatches from the foot soldiers of a medical revolution.