Potential organ donors opting out of programs after reports of man mistakenly declared dead

Transplant experts are seeing a spike in people revoking organ donor registrations, their confidence shaken by reports that organs were nearly retrieved from a Kentucky man mistakenly declared dead.

Transplant experts are seeing a spike in people revoking organ donor registrations, their confidence shaken by reports that organs were nearly retrieved from a Kentucky man mistakenly declared dead.

It happened in 2021 and while details are murky surgery was avoided and the man is still alive. But donor registries in the U.S. and even across the Atlantic are being impacted after the case was publicized recently. A drop in donations could cost the lives of people awaiting a transplant.

“Organ donation is based on public trust,” said Dorrie Dils, president of the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations, or OPOs. When eroded, “it takes years to regain.”

Only doctors caring for patients can determine if they're dead -- the law blocks anyone involved with organ donation or transplant. The allegations raise questions about how doctors make that determination and what’s supposed to happen if anyone sees a reason for doubt.

Key is ensuring “all doctors are doing the right tests and doing them well,” said Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, a Georgetown University bioethicist.

The 2021 case first came to light in a congressional hearing last month, with unconfirmed details in later media reports – allegations that a man who’d been declared dead days earlier woke up on the way to the operating room for organ-donation surgery and that there was initial reluctance to realize it.

The federal agency that regulates the U.S. transplant system is investigating, and the Kentucky attorney general’s office said it is “reviewing the facts to identify an appropriate response.” A coalition of OPOs and other donation groups is urging that findings be made public quickly and the public withhold judgment until then, saying any deviation from the industry's strict standards would be “entirely unacceptable.”