![]() UNOS CEO Brian Shepard has already announced he's stepping down at the end of September. "Opacity at UNOS means we have no idea how often basic mistakes happen across the country," she said. And in one week in May of this year, Locke said four kidneys had to be tossed for avoidable errors in transportation and handling. In 2017, a package came "squished" with apparent tire marks on it (though, remarkably, the organ was salvaged). Jayme Locke, who directs the transplant program. Organ deliveries arriving damaged or 'squished'Īt the University of Alabama-Birmingham, a kidney arrived frozen solid and unusable in 2014, said Dr. And that number has gotten worse as organs travel farther to reach sicker patients under the new allocation policy. One in four potential donor kidneys, according to the latest UNOS data, now goes to waste. Even when organs do arrive, transplant surgeons say the lack of tracking leads to longer periods of "cold time" - when organs are in transit without blood circulation - because often the transplant surgeons can't start a patient on anesthesia until the organ is physically in hand. The report also cites a 2020 KHN investigation that uncovered many more incidents - nearly 170 transportation snafus from 2014 to 2019. In the decade between 20, the congressional report found UNOS received 53 complaints about transportation including numerous missed flights leading to canceled transplants and discarded organs. "It was actually in Orlando, 20 miles away." "I can't even get a kidney that's 20 miles away from my transplant center, with UNOS thinking it was in Miami," said Barry Friedman, director of the transplant center at AdventHealth in Orlando. There's also no standard way to track an organ, even as companies like Amazon can locate any package, anywhere, anytime. The UNOS computer system can go down for an hour or more at a time, delaying matches when every hour counts. The investigation places blame on antiquated technology. Outdated technology has no way to track organs in transit "Right now, UNOS is 15 times more likely to lose or damage an organ in transit as an airline is to lose or damage your luggage. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) said during the Aug. "The organ transplant system overall has become a dangerous mess," Sen. senators - both Democrat and Republican - are questioning whether it's time for another entity to step in. UNOS has held the contract to manage organ distribution since the beginning of the country's transplant system in 1984, and now U.S. Kettering, Ohio: In June 2020, a transplant recipient was informed that he had accidentally received an organ from a donor with cancer and would likely develop cancer.Las Vegas: In July 2017, two kidney recipients contracted a rare infection.Charleston, South Carolina: In November 2018, a patient died after receiving an organ with the wrong blood type.A two-year inquiry by the Senate Finance Committee uncovered numerous incidents that were previously undisclosed publicly. Roughly 5,000 a year are dying on the waitlist - even as perfectly good donated organs end up in the trash. Still, nearly 100,000 patients are waiting on kidneys and even more for other organs. The number of kidney transplants increased last year by 16% under a new policy implemented by UNOS that prioritizes the sicker patients over those who live closer to a transplant center. This story was produced in partnership with Kaiser Health News. "We're like 'hey, I need a kidney for me. "Patients, we're not looking at that," McCowan said, referring to the policy debates. The agency, the United Network for Organ Sharing, received a bipartisan tongue lashing at a recent Congressional hearing. Meanwhile, the agency that oversees donations and transplants is under scrutiny for how many organs are going to waste instead of helping patients like her. Now her kidneys are failing again, and she's facing the possibility of needing a third transplant. She chose to donate his organs in hopes they would save a life. And in the midst of her own end-stage renal disease, her two-year-old son died. She's a PhD candidate studying human behavior from Dallas who's already survived two kidney transplants. The agency that oversees organ allocation, the United Network for Organ Sharing, is under scrutiny after a report documented loss and waste of donated organs, often because of problems transporting the organs.įor the last decade, Precious McCowan's life has revolved around organ transplants. Surgical instruments used in a kidney transplant in 2016. ![]()
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