The White House has announced it will shut down an organ donation group in Kentucky accused of trying to retrieve organs from some patients who unexpectedly showed signs of life. While the surgeries were cancelled, the cases hit the headlines a number of years ago, prompting an increase in people across the United States revoking their organ donor registrations.
Health Secretary's Statement
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the non-profit, Network for Hope, "a bad apple", accusing it of "persistent safety failures". He announced the federal government was beginning the process required to decertify the group.
Among the allegations is that in 2021, Network for Hope’s predecessor organisation pressured a local hospital to proceed with plans to withdraw life support and retrieve organs from a man despite signs he was waking up from a drug overdose. The man survived and his sister joined Mr Kennedy at a press briefing Wednesday (August 5), thanking him.
Network for Hope's Response
In a statement, Network for Hope said it "strongly disagrees" with Mr Kennedy’s decision and will appeal. The group said it complies with all federal organ policies. It said that over a year ago, it implemented a "first-of-its-kind" safeguard allowing anyone — including health professionals or relatives — to request a pause in donation planning if there is any concern that the patient will not be an appropriate donor.
Background on Organ Procurement
Network for Hope is one of about 55 Organ Procurement Organisations, or OPOs, in the US which coordinate the recovery of organs from deceased donors and help match them to patients on the nation’s transplant list. In the United States, OPOs cannot declare if someone is dead, only a doctor at the hospital treating the person can do that. Only after that declaration can a donor agency assume responsibility for the deceased, looking for potential recipients and scheduling surgeons to come in to retrieve the organs.
Most donations come from people declared brain-dead, but sometimes doctors say a patient has an injury deemed not survivable, and the family decides to withdraw life support. In certain circumstances, that can also allow for donation.
Recent Developments
Kentucky recently passed a law mandating that pause, and the federal Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network is working on new rules that also would require all the nation’s OPOs to implement it. More than 100,000 people are on the transplant list in the United States. The vast majority are seeking a kidney, and thousands will die waiting for a new organ. There were more than 49,000 transplants last year, a record despite a small drop in donations from the deceased. It was the first such decrease in a decade.
