When an organ stops working correctly because of injury or illness, it needs to be replaced. Doctors are able to replace many organs in the body using organs from living or deceased donors. Organ transplantation sounds like a straightforward process. But the wait for a compatible donor can be long, and many myths persist and keep people from becoming organ donors.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), about 79 people receive organ transplants every day. However, an average of 22 people die every day because of a shortage in available organs. Every 10 minutes, another person is added to the national transplant waiting list. One organ donor may be able to save eight lives.
All of these statistics add up to the fact that the number of people who need an organ transplant is much greater than the number of people signed up to be organ donors.
Many myths about organ donation still exist and affect people’s decision to become donors. Understanding the organ donation process can help overcome some of the anxiety surrounding donations and transplants, according to Abhinav Humar, MD, Thomas E. Starzl Professor of Transplantation Surgery and chair of transplant surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and clinical director of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute.
To dispel the myth that people receive worse medical care once they consent to be organ donors, Dr. Humar says that there are safeguards against this. “First, doctors act in the best interests of their patients. Second, the process for organ donation isn’t even started until it’s determined that the donor has met or will most likely meet the criteria for being brain dead. Third, the team that removes the organs and gets consent from the donors or their families is separate from the team that’s looking after the patient. There’s a separation of the two teams so that there’s no conflict of interest. The doctor who’s looking after the patient has no vested interest or benefit from that person being a donor,” he says.
“People should know that we see no downside for a deceased person to be an organ donor,” says Dr. Humar.
The other way for someone to be a donor is through the live donation process. A live donation is when someone is donating one organ or part of one. “Commonly it’s done with kidneys,” says Dr. Humar. “We have two kidneys, and most people can do fine with just one kidney. People can also donate part of their livers because the liver is an organ that can regrow.”
There are racial and ethnic disparities with regard to organ donation and transplantation. HHS research shows that “African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders and Hispanics/Latinos are three times more likely than [Whites] to suffer from end-stage kidney disease, often as the result of high blood pressure and other conditions that can damage the kidneys. Almost 34 percent of the more than 101,000 people on the national waiting list for a kidney transplant are African American. African Americans are the largest group of minorities in need of an organ transplant.”
Organs from donors are not specifically matched by race or ethnicity to recipients. But HHS reports, “Compatible blood types and tissue markers—critical qualities for donor/recipient matching—are more likely to be found among members of the same ethnicity.”
If people think about the great need for organ donations and decide they want to become donors, Dr. Humar encourages people to discuss their wishes with their families. “If people feel strongly about being a donor, they should let their families know. It’s always easier to talk about it up front. We also often find that people are reluctant to ask others to be a living donor for them. We’d like to have people feel more comfortable doing that.”
For more facts about organ donation, visit https://www.organdonor.gov/whydonate/facts.html or https://www.core.org/ understanding-donation/dispelling-the-myths/.
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