Nation should update transplant protocols to save more lives
Recent news about the failures in the U.S. organ transplant system has the nation talking about an important topic that I have spent much of my life working to improve.
As a transplant surgeon and advisor to the Kidney Transplant Collaborative (KTC), these discussions give me hope that much-needed change is coming.
Approximately 89,000 Americans are currently waiting for a kidney transplant, and tens of thousands more are in need of a transplant but aren’t on the wait list yet. With problem after problem being identified in the transplant system, and many of those stemming from deceased donor transplants, it’s time to address a missed opportunity in the system: living organ donations.
Data show that while overall kidney transplant rates have improved over the past decade, the number of living donations has stagnated. Fortunately, the new Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) database includes data on living donations. This is a change that was long overdue, and more work needs to be done to increase transplants nationwide.
What piece of the puzzle is missing? We lack a national program to assist living donors through the transplant donation process, and it’s costing us lives every day. But there is a solution: enacting the Living Kidney Donor Support Act.
The KTC is a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to increasing kidney transplants and decreasing obstacles and financial barriers to kidney transplantation for donors, recipients and their families.
Through the organization, I’ve worked with living donors, transplant recipients, transplant surgeons, nephrologists and leaders of some of the major nonprofits and other experts in this field. While our different experiences and involvement give us individual perspectives on the transplant process, we collectively agree that the living kidney donor system is flawed and must be fixed.
The living donors I have worked with over the years are all generous people. In fact, they are heroes. To selflessly give up part of one’s body to save another life is an act that should be appreciated and honored.
Sadly, these heroes are too often offered insufficient guidance about what to expect. They often pay their own expenses in navigating the transplant process and have to take time off work without reimbursement. There are many heroes willing to become living organ donors, but our system discourages people from stepping up and volunteering.
Without a public educational campaign and assistance with logistics costs, the process to become a living organ donor is nearly impossible for most Americans to pursue.
The recent conversations about failures in our transplant system, however, give me hope that things are about to change. An easy, obvious step in the right direction is to create a national program to ensure we take care of living donors, our heroes.
We’re identifying these problems in the transplant system. But now, it’s time to do something about them. The Living Donor Support Act is a next step that will save lives — and save money in the Medicare system. HRSA estimates that each new transplant will save Medicare $136,000 — imagine the savings if we doubled the current 6,000 living donors in 2022 to 12,000, or even more.
I hope the Living Kidney Donor Support Act will be part of the conversation moving forward and urge Americans and our elected officials in Congress to get behind win-win legislation to make a significant change in our flawed donation system.
Thomas G. Peters, M.D., FACS, is an advisor to the Kidney Transplant Collaborative. He was the founding director of the Jacksonville Transplant Center and today serves as professor of surgery, emeritus, at the University of Florida College of Medicine. This originally appeared in the Miami Herald.