Today's Edition
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WASHINGTON (ALETIHAD)
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced reforms to the nation’s organ transplant system Monday, citing recent findings that the process of removing organs has sometimes begun even when donors showed signs of life.
The federally chartered nonprofit groups - known as organ procurement organisations (OPOs) that coordinate the donation process - will face decertification if they fail to follow protocols that regulate when an organ can be extracted from a dead patient, according to a release from HHS.
“Our findings show that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life, and this is horrifying,” Kennedy said.
“The organ procurement organisations that coordinate access to transplants will be held accountable. The entire system must be fixed to ensure that every potential donor’s life is treated with the sanctity it deserves.”
The announcement, which comes ahead of a House hearing Tuesday morning on safety breaches in the organ donation system, stems from an HHS investigation into reports that workers for OPOs pressured doctors to start procuring kidneys, livers and other organs from patients even as they showed signs of life.
"Our findings show that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life, and this is horrifying,” Kennedy said in a statement.
In a March report, HHS looked at 351 cases in which organ donation was authorised but not completed. It found 103 cases with "concerning features, including 73 patients with neurological signs incompatible with organ donation,” according to Kennedy’s statement. At least 28 patients may not have been deceased when organ procurement was initiated, the statement said.
HHS also said it found evidence of "poor neurological assessments, lack of coordination with medical teams, questionable consent practices and misclassification of causes of death.”
The nation’s supply of organs - which falls far short of demand - has been boosted in recent years by the practice of removing organs from patients who have experienced "circulatory death.” Such patients may still show brain activity but doctors have determined they are near death and won’t recover. With family consent, life support can be withdrawn and doctors then wait for the heart to stop beating.
Most organ donations are still from brain-dead patients, but OPOs in some cases have pressured doctors to move quickly in procuring organs in the short time frame required.
HHS launched its investigation after a House committee hearing in September, where the former employee of an OPO revealed that she, a surgeon and other workers refused to procure organs from a patient who was being prepared for surgery but was shaking his head and crying.
