Sep 9, 2022 - Health

U.S. surpasses 1 million organ transplants as need continues to soar

Shawna Chen

Photo of three doctors in scrubs standing around a patient's bed preparing for surgery — Doctors prepare for a kidney transplant surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Feb. 25, 2019, in Chicago, Illinois. Photo: Raquel Zaldivar/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The U.S. surpassed one million organ transplants on Friday, reaching a milestone decades after the first successful transplant with a kidney in 1954.

Yes, but: The need for organ donors remains immense — more people are getting transplants than ever before — even as the nation's transplant system faces criticism for poor management and oversight.

Details: So far this year, 24,414 people have had a transplant operation, according to the United Network for Sharing Organs (UNOS), which runs the U.S.'s transplant system.

Almost 106,000 people are waiting for life-saving organ transplants.
Roughly 17 a day die waiting, AP reports.
Kidneys remain the highest in demand.

The big picture: More than 41,000 people in America underwent an organ transplant in 2021 — a new record after the pandemic led to a slight slowdown of the life-saving procedures in 2020.

The UNOS, however, has caught backlash from Congress members for failing to enforce a centralized transportation system. Delays and logistical problems often put the organs in jeopardy at the risk of the patient.
Tens of thousands of organs go unrecovered and untransplanted each year, with those failures most often impacting people of color.
Health experts and advocates have launched a new campaign aimed at speeding up the amount of time it takes to reach the next million transplants.

Go deeper: Organ donation recovery rates worse for people of color, data show

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U.S. surpasses 1 million organ transplants as need continues to soar

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