When it comes to matters of the heart, no one likes rejection. Heart transplant patients know this better than anyone.
One of the most significant risks of a heart transplant is organ rejection. This occurs when the recipient’s immune system reacts to the foreign antigens in the donor organ and begins to attack it by mistake. These rejections account for about 10% of all deaths within the first three years after a heart transplant, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a division of the National Institute of Health.