According to government reports, 70 transplant patients have died and 249 more have fallen ill in recent years due to supply chain failures for donor organs.
A full report submitted by the U.S. Senate Finance Committeeand obtained by The Washington Postlists dozens of failed cases resulting from inadequate screening of donor organs. The transplant procedure is detailed. Accidentally received an already sick organ or an organ with a mismatched blood type.In some cases, the patient needs to see the donor organ removed and relisted on the transplant list. Others die before doctors realize their mistake.
His one case outlined in the report was a South Carolina man who received a double lung transplant with a mismatched organ and died the next day. Another patient in Wisconsin was sentenced to three years in prison along with a new heart after doctors learned the muscle came from someone with an advanced brain tumor.
Researchers also identified some kind of egregious inventory mismanagement that led to the discarding of perfectly viable organs, especially the most common groups of replacement organs: the heart, liver and kidney. According to a 2019 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, in one year alone, approximately 3,500 good kidneys go unused, even though more than 90,000 patients seek kidneys. or presumed to be discarded.
A parliamentary committee condemned all groups working to procure, distribute and monitor organ donations. This includes local and national non-profit organizations that collate and manage transplant cases, and government regulators. Monitoring and discrepancies throughout the process.
There are currently about 106,000 Americans waiting on transplant lists, and on average he is getting a new one every nine minutes. At the same time, approximately 17 people die each day awaiting needed organs.
A report released last Wednesday included 1,118 complaints filed with the United Network for organ sharing between 2010 and 2020. 70 deaths were counted between 2008 and 2015. A total of 174,000 transplants were performed during that period.
The United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees 57 regional organ procurement organizations across the United States, championed the effort.
"Our system is complex. It is dedicated to continuous improvement, monitoring and adaptation. Thousands of people gather every day across the country to save lives," said UNOS. Chief Executive Brian Shepherd said in testimony to a Senate committee.
"This is a system that was established by Congress nearly 40 years ago to provide the best possible service to patients in need of a transplant, thanks to the determination and expertise of those who laid the foundation.
UNOS is a private government contractor and is not subject to extensive federal regulation. The Senate report argues that this lack of transparency has led to a lack of clarity about where mistakes were made and how to fix them.
