The recent sensational headlines caused by another poorly researched NPR post again highlight that we are sadly experiencing a time when certain influencers are using misinformation and sensationalism to game the organ donation and transplant system. Congress and the media, for the sake of the tens of thousands on organ transplant waiting lists and the selfless donors and donor families, need to focus on the truth around the current system and the correct science to continue to improve results.
Science in Donation and Transplant (SID&T) is aware of the coverage surrounding an event that was recently communicated to Congress by Greg Segal, who heard it from a person who heard it from a person. Like the reporter from published stories on the incident, we are not in possession of the facts surrounding a 2021 incident in a hospital in Kentucky. We understand from the hearsay coverage that a patient whose physicians had determined that his diagnosis and prognosis were so poor as to guide his family to direct that his life support be removed, actually had a recoverable injury, and recovered. We understand that people in the room felt that there was confusion and pressure surrounding the process of determining that the proper course was not, as the doctors and hospital previously thought, to remove life support and allow the patient to pass and donate organs, but was, rather, to treat the patient in support of his recovery. The resulting decision to treat the patient resulted in his recovery. Like all involved, we are heartened to hear of the patient’s recovery, and concerned about any factor that might have put it at risk.
What we at SID&T do know, and the media and Congress could easily establish, is that organ procurement professionals do not diagnose when death is imminent, make decisions regarding withdrawal of treatment from living patients, or diagnose when death has occurred. Those decisions are the sole responsibility of the treating health care providers (physicians).
What we also know is that there are entities involved who do have both the power and the knowledge to thoroughly investigate these issues and more. Chief among them is the Membership and Professional Standards Committee of the OPTN, (https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/) which monitors members for compliance with OPTN obligations and reviews reported violations.
Every person involved with a donor hospital, organ procurement organization or transplant hospital knows of the MPSC, and its vigorous investigatory and review powers, and its mechanism for anonymous reporting.
We do not know if this matter was reported to the OPTN at the time, by any of the persons involved, or why not. The Kentucky Organ Procurement Organization (KODA) issued the statement that the first “reporting” of this incident was in the salacious Congressional testimony three and ½ years later. To be clear, adverse event reporting is mandated by CMS. Nor do we know if the matter was reported to law enforcement, the state medical board or any other regulatory entity with the power and mandate to find the truth.
We urge that the persons involved and the regulatory bodies responsible for ascertaining facts, addressing process errors and adverse events act quickly to ascertain the truth, and to make sure that those responsible for any wrongdoing are held accountable. SID&T supports the transparent ascertainment of facts, to sustain the trust that America’s donation and transplant system has rightly earned.
America’s organ donation and transplantation system is the envy of the world. Science has shown that the Federal rule that governs it is critically flawed. That is what deserves the immediate attention of those able to influence meaningful change in the rules.
