Transplant Costs: Heart, Lungs, Liver, Kidneys and More

It's Valentine's Day.  Could that be why today's Bible verse of the day is Love One Another?

John 13:34, 35 --“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

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Have you ever wondered what it costs to get a transplant if your heart gets broken?  I just learned that when it comes to the transplant business, there are actually two variables to consider. In addition to cost you have to also factor in time. Finding a heart, liver, lung or kidney isn't the same as picking out a suit at the clothing store. Availability is a factor as well.

According to the National Foundation for Transplants, here is a list of price tags for several major procedures.

Heart transplant: $1.382 million
Lung (one): $861 thousand
Liver: $812 thousand
Kidney: $414.8 thousand
Pancreas: $347 thousand

Since insurance will cover 80% of your bill, you only need to think about the 20% co-pay probably. That would be only be $276 thousand for the heart, for example.

The real kick-in-the-pants comes when you look at waiting lists.

New heart: 191 days
Lung: 185 days
Liver: 239 days
Kidney: 679 days
Pancreas: 679 days

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This is what the Tin Man wanted
more than anything.
(Yes, this is what your heart looks like.)

If your heart has been broken, or you simply feel heartless, here are the lyrics to the Tin Man's lament in The Wizard of Oz. If anything, it sometimes helps to know you're not the first who's ever needed a heart, or needed mending for the one they've got.

When a man's an empty kettle 
he should be on his mettle, 
And yet I'm torn apart. 
Just because I'm presumin' 
that I could be kind-a-human, 
If I only had a heart 

I'd be tender - I'd be gentle 
and awful sentimental 
Regarding love and art. 
I'd be friends with the sparrows ... 
and the boys who shoots the arrows 
If I only had a heart. 

Picture me - a balcony. 
Above a voice sings low. 
Dorothy: Wherefore art thou, Romeo? 
Tin Man: I hear a beat....How sweet. 

Just to register emotion,
jealousy - devotion, 
And really feel the part. 
I could stay young and chipper 
and I'd lock it with a zipper, 
If I only had a heart.

* * * *
Here's an extra verse I would add, if I only had an imagination:

I'd be light as a feather, 
I could dance through any weather
We'd be happy together
And I'd even wear your tether
Whether made of steel or leather
Yes, we'd prance about the heather
In regions here and nether
While I babbled bliss and blether
If I only had a heart.

Related Links
National Foundation for Transplants
Hearts by Anne Labovitz
Heart Trivia from the Franklin Institute