The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which serves as the nation’s transplant system under contract with the federal government, recently reported its millionth U.S. organ transplant. UNOS and the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance credited the organ donation and transplantation community, including transplant hospitals, with making the historic milestone possible. The first successful transplant took place at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital) in Boston in 1954.
UNOS and the Alliance encourage the transplant community to join Living It Forward, a national initiative to commemorate the achievement and accelerate the path forward to the next million transplants. They also encourage members of the public to register as organ donors, noting that each donor can save up to eight lives and help up to 75 people through tissue donation. Over 100,000 people remain on the transplant waitlist.
LifeSource is the organ procurement organization that serves the state of South Dakota as well as Minnesota and North Dakota. Working with nearly 300 hospitals and 9 transplant centers in the three-state service area, LifeSource ensures every donor and family that wants to donate one’s organs, eyes and tissues has the opportunity to do so.
This past July was a milestone month for organ and tissue in the Upper Midwest with more donors than any other month in LifeSource’s 33-year history: 28 organ donors (84 organs transplanted/lives saved) and 118 tissue donors (more than 8,850 lives impacted).
For more information on organ donation or to register as a donor, click here.
