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I donated a kidney to a stranger. It shouldn’t be this difficult for others to give.

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There are people like me who want to become kidney donors. If we want to increase that number, we must ease the burden on transplant donors and recipients and help them navigate the donation process.

By Shmuly Yanklowitz

For many years I debated: Should I be an organ donor?  

As a faith leader who regularly speaks about the value of life, and as a healthy individual with an interest in organ donation, I was genuinely excited about the possibility to save another person.

Nonetheless, it was a very big decision and one I did not take lightly.  Read the full article in USA Today.

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Organ donation guidelines dependent on transplant center

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By Ask the Doctors

Hello, dear readers, and welcome to a bonus edition of our monthly letters column. Our mailboxes are overflowing, so we’ll get right down to business.

— We recently wrote about living organ donation. That’s when a living person gives an organ, such as a kidney, or part of an organ, such as the liver, to another individual. The column led to a question from a reader in Pennsylvania: “Is there a minimum GFR to become a kidney donor?” she asked. “I recently filled out a registry form for a specific patient but forgot to ask about this.” Read the full story from UCLA Health.

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High rate of donated organs going unused is costing lives

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By Barry Massa

Every year, thousands of donated organs, primarily kidneys, go to waste because transplant centers decline to accept the organs for patients.

This is a reality that few outside of the transplant specialty are discussing. Despite calls from many corners of government to improve the organ donation and transplantation system, the non-use of donated organs is far down the list of concerns. Read the full story in Healio.

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In a time of grief, a stranger’s family gave him the ultimate gift

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By Brigid McCarthy, Laura Kwerel

This story is part of the My Unsung Hero series, from the Hidden Brain team, about people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else.

A few years ago, Andy Davis and his wife decided to ride their bikes across the country. They spent months training and planning for their adventure.

But one day in February of 2020, just a few months before they were going to start, Davis felt an intense pain across his chest. After two Medevac flights and some time in the hospital, he was diagnosed with heart failure, a serious condition in which the heart can no longer pump blood efficiently. Read the full story from NPR.

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Penn State Health expert debunks six myths about organ donation

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Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.
Right now, more than 100,000 people in the U.S. – nearly two times the population of Harrisburg – are waiting for organ transplants.

Doctors helped 42,887 of them last year, up 3.7% from 2021. Donated kidneys, hearts and livers helped them survive what was once incurable – old death sentences like heart failure, lung cancer and cirrhosis of the liver. Read more in News Medical Life Sciences.

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The Gift of Life Is Multiplied Exponentially with Whole-Body Donation

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When Alva Capuano was discovered unconscious in her living room, her husband, Richard, and then paramedics did everything possible to get her heart beating again. But by the time it did, her brain had experienced irreversible damage. Her family accepted that Alva, 64, was gone. Their sorrow fueled a determination to fulfill her last wish: As the recipient of a donated pancreas and kidney, Alva had hoped to become an organ donor herself.
Read the article from NYU Langone Health NewsHub.

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Organ donation, transplant rates increase during motorcycle rallies

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An analysis by Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital researchers shows steep increases in organ donations and transplantations take place during large motorcycle rallies.

The research, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, shows that in the regions where the seven largest motorcycle rallies were held throughout the United States between 2005 and 2021, there were 21% more organ donors per day, on average, and 26% more transplant recipients per day, on average, during these events, compared with days just before and after the rallies, according to a press release. Read the full story in Healio.

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