My brother died at age 21 back in '93, due to organ failure brought on by his heart which had been deformed since birth. He waited in Denver's Children's Hospital on the heart transplant list for several months before dying.

A friend I knew had the top part of his heart replaced with a leatherized cadaver graft, after suffering from a massive infection under the pericardium. He died about 8 years after that.

Veins and valves and hair issues have some avenues for treatment and don't necessarily result in death.