Of course, when you see a doctor, a person is a patient who has to wait. But the dimension that an organ-sick person has to suffer can be defined here in Germany as a “waiting patient“. It can affect anyone, even with a different entry/exit of the medical history. Only one of these possible tales of woe is mentioned here (the following is taken from a narrative point of view!) :
Nach pathologischer Betrachtung und Einschätzung der Gewebeproben bzw. Zuhilfenahme und Bestätigung des “dritten” Fachfachkollegen ist dann der “Verdacht” zu einer “Diagnose” endmutiert.
Finally, phew, that was a difficult birth! and then you are finally “organically ill”.
Depending on which organ is affected, you will be admitted to a “program” as quickly as possible and placed on a list with the other “waiting patients”. Now we have to wait and see.
Unless you have kidney disease, which accounts for over 80% of waiting patients, then you will only be treated when you are sick. Why? Since the waiting time for a dialysis patient is the most unbearable and longest.!
Waiting patient is a real existing structure, why is it not defined? “Patient is already the term for patience or waiting, why are you still making us waiting patients?
Waiting is another thing: If you are lucky (in this case, luck is “you are really bad”), you will get an “HU” for “high urgent” at Eurotransplant in the Netherlands for your waiting list entry .
The waiting time for a donor organ, according to the DSO Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation, is on average 9-11 years in Germany, namely for a kidney transplant.
Waiting patient, dependent on a heart transplant, has to struggle with a long and nerve-wracking waiting time for a donor organ. This dies if it is not transplanted in time. There are artificial hearts which, to put it mildly, enable heart disease people to survive for up to a year. But many patients die before they have the saving, possibly life-extending, donor heart transplanted due to a lack of donor organs here in Germany.
Here you can listen to an interview about a heart transplant in a podcast on Spotify (german language):
Interview with Jürgen Boie: From a dream vacation in the Caribbean to a heart transplant
Waiting patient who is dependent on a donor organ also has to struggle with a very long waiting time. This dies even if it is not transplanted in time. As a rule, those patients who are dependent on a lung transplant have a life expectancy of less than 2-3 years and are extremely limited in their resilience and quality of life. These must then be classified as HU (high urgent) so that they may receive the life-extending transplant. But here in Germany, the number of organ donations has been pretty desolate in recent years.
support group “COPD/Lungenemphysem”
Waiting patient, dependent on a liver transplant, also has a very short chance of survival. Since the waiting time for a donor organ is very long, it will probably succumb to the disease, because there is no replacement therapy for survival except liver transplantation. The liver is still the most complicated organ, so a replacement therapy for it has still not been invented.
Support group “Leberzirrhose/-fibrose”
Waiting patient, dependent on a kidney transplant, has a good chance of survival while waiting for the possibly life-prolonging donor organ.
Although dialysis patients have a treatment option with kidney replacement therapy (dialysis) that extends their lives (the record is 50 years), the accompanying illnesses literally make their lives difficult and sometimes unbearable.
The average waiting time for a kidney transplant in Germany is currently 9-11 years.
What does “kidney disease” mean?
Support Group: “Menschen auf der Warteliste bei Eurotransplant”
Waiting patient dependent on a pancreas, large / small intestine or cornea (tissue) donation has a relatively good chance of survival while waiting for a donor or tissue organ that improves quality of life. But only if, before irreversible damage to the organ occurs, treatment can be given early and an organ donation can be avoided, otherwise it can be too late.